Marissa Alejandria
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is investing P8.4 million to examine the potential use of virgin coconut oil (VCO) in adjunctive therapy of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, the agency said on Wednesday.
Selected patients from the Philippine General Hospital will take part in one of the projects worth P4.8 million, where they will be randomly assigned to standard care and treatment groups, and receive about one tablespoon of VCO for every meal, thrice a day.
The lipid profile, fasting blood sugar and creatinine of the patients will be monitored in the course of the study to determine the efficacy of VCO.
The DOST said findings of the research, led by clinical epidemiologist Marissa Alejandria of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine, will seek to prove the effectiveness of VCO in boosting the health status of COVID patients.
The project kicked off in October 2020 and the department has been funding numerous efforts related to the use of VCO for COVID-19 treatment.
Another DOST project
In another P3.6-million project under the DOST Food and Nutrition Research Institute, suspect and probable COVID-19 patients undergoing quarantine in different facilities were administered with VCO to explore its potential of preventing worsening conditions.
The DOST said the meat of the coconut fruit that contains lauric acid and monolaurin made the VCO a candidate for adjunctive therapy.
“Past studies suggest that these chemical compounds can stop the replication of the COVID-19 virus and the binding of the proteins of the virus to the cell membrane of the host,” the agency said.
Dr. Fabian Dayrit, a chemistry professor from Ateneo de Manila University and president of the Integrated Chemists of the Philippines, in a separate initiative last year spearheaded in-vitro research that showcased how VCO compounds helped in decreasing the coronavirus count by 60 percent to 90 percent.
“The results are very promising, as not only does it show that the VCO, by itself, can destroy the virus, but it also has a key mechanism in upregulating the immune response against COVID-19,” said Dr. Jaime Montoya, executive director of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development.