222
Rate
of Absorption of Oils and Fats
[XVII
It was found that at the end of four hours the stomach of the animals fed body fats contained a
visible hard fat. This lower rate of absorption is probably due to the high melting point of the
fat as seen from Table II.
TABLE I
The Rate of Absorption of Oils and Fats in 4 hours Digestion Period
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Name of Fat
Cow Ghee. M. P. 36.5°C. . . . . . . . .
Buffalo Ghee. M. P. 36.3°C. . . . . . . . .
Sheep Ghee. M. P. 35.4°C. . . . . . . . .
Goat Ghee. M. P. 34.3°C. . . . . . . . .
Cow body fat. M. P. 49.6°C. . . . . . . . .
Buffalo body fat. M. P. 52.3°C. . . . . . . .
Sheep body fat. M. P. 49.6°C. . . . . . . . .
Goat body fat. M. P. 49.4°C. . . . . . . . .
Groundnut Oil. . . . . . . . . . .
Sesame Oil . . . . . . . . . . . .
Safflower Oil . . . . . . . . . .
Coconut Oil M. P. 27.6°C. . . . . . . . .
Mustard Oil
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Cotton seed Oil . . . . . . . .
Groundnut V. M. P. 34.1°C. . . . . . . . .
Groundnut V. M. P. 37.0°C.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Groundnut V. M. P.
39.0°C.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Sesame V. M. P.
37.1°C.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Sesame V. M. P. 38.7°C. . . . . . . . .
Sesame V. M. P.
39.3°C.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Cotton seed V. M. P.
35.5°C.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Cotton seed V. M. P.
37.3°C.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Cotton seed V. M. P. 38.5°C. . . . . . . . .
Absorption
(per cent)
45.7
45.6
40.3
48.4
31.3
33.6
30.5
32.0
39.4
45.1
41.2
45.7
27.1
38.9
36.5
34.8
33.6
34.8
32.5
30.7
36.2
34.8
30.9
Standard
error of
the mean
±2.58
±2.48
±1.60
±1.41
±0.77
± 1.33
±1.41
±1.00
±0.94
± 2.05
± 1.72
± 2.49
±1.56
±7.51
±1.14
±1.96
±0.88
±1.53
±1.05
±1.20
±3.57
±1.79
±1.74
't' for
significance
(All fats
compared
to Cow
Ghee)
..
0.02
1.36
0.88
5.10
3.91
4.97
4.67
2.20
0.18
1.40
0.00
5.94
1.84
2.99
3.26
4.23
3.51
4.56
5.09
2.14
3.37
4.42
t= for significance = 2.262.
With regard to edible oils, mustard oil is found to be least absorbed while sesame and cocoanut
oils happened to be absorbed to the same extent as cow ghee. The other oils, safflower, groundnut
and cotton seed, though they were absorbed to a lesser degree than cow ghee, did not show any
significant difference.
Vanaspathies, in general, are found to be less absorbed. If the rates of absorption of groundnut
vanaspathies are taken into consideration, it is seen that as the melting point of the sample increases
from 34.1°C. to 39.0°C, the absorption correspondingly decreases from 36.5 per cent to 33.6 per cent
Though the sample having a melting point of 34.1°C. compared favourably well with groundnut
oil, the rates of abosrption of other two vanaspathhies were significantly lower. The rates of absorp-
tion of the sesame as well as cotton seed vanaspaties showed the same trend, i.e., higher the melting
point, the lower was the rate of absorption.
This discrepancy in the rates of absorption of different fats can be partly explained by following
closely the changes that take place in a fat as digestion proceeds. This has been done by analyzing
the intestinal residues from each group for B. R. Index, saponification value and the iodine values
and the data are shown in Table II. A glance at Table II reveals clearly that there is an increase
in the B. R. Index and a lowering of the iodine value in the residual fat.