American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 64, 159-167, Copyright © 1996 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc

ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Plasma fatty acid responses, metabolic effects, and safety of microalgal and fungal oils rich in arachidonic and docosahexaenoic acids in healthy adults

SM Innis and JW Hansen
Department of Paediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

The effect of dietary supplementation with different amounts of a fungal oil containing arachidonic acid (AA, 20:4n--6) and a microalgal oil containing docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n--3), blended to give a ratio of AA to DHA of 1.25:1.00, on plasma lipid AA, DHA, cholesterol, and triacylglycerols was evaluated in healthy men. Subjects (n = 8/group) were given 28.8 g fat/d containing 0 x (0 g AA, 0 g DHA), or 1 x (0.8 g AA, 0.6 g DHA), 3 x (2.2 g AA, 1.7 g DHA), or 5 x (3.6 g AA, 2.9 g DHA) the estimated intake of infants fed human milk with 0.5% AA and 0.4% DHA for 14 d. No clinically significant dose-related effects were seen on physical examination or from routine laboratory tests. The microalgal-fungal oil blend resulted in a significant, dose-dependent increase in plasma cholesterol and percentage phospholipid AA and DHA, and a decrease in percentage triacylglycerols and phospholipid linoleic acid. Plasma phospholipid AA and DHA increased approximately 18% and 50%, respectively, with the 1 x dose, similar to that expected at intakes provided by human milk. These oils appear to be safe dietary sources of AA and DHA for healthy adults at intakes equivalent to 0.8 g AA and 0.6 g DHA/d for > or = 2 wk.

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