DOST, DLSU Partner on VCO Study

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) through the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) has allocated P4.6 million for a definitive study on virgin coconut oil (VCO) health benefits. The research and development (R&D) effort will be undertaken with DOST-Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) and the De La Salle University Medical Center in Dasmariñas, Cavite. 
FNRI director Imelda Angeles-Agdeppa will lead the R&D team for the study, titled “Bioequivalence of Virgin Coconut Oil among Healthy Filipino Male Adults: An Exploratory Pharmacokinetic Study.”  The study will seek to determine the rate and extent of absorption of VCO administered to Filipino male adults and monitor the safety and tolerability among takers. 
Agdeppa said the output of the study will also provide another scientific basis for the adoption and registration of VCO as a food supplement for COVID-19 patients, even initially at the Food and Drug Administration.  Agdeppa also led the clinical studies on VCO as cure for COVID-19 cases during the pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, which successfully showed that VCO had hastened the recovery of probable and suspected, and then mild to moderate cases in Santa Rosa, Laguna and Valenzuela City.