Effect of short-term consumption bitter apricot seeds on the body composition in healthy population

Abstract

The distribution of fat in different areas of the body is important since accumulation of fat within the abdominal cavity represents a much more severe cardiovascular risk than accumulation in subcutaneous adipose tissues. Apricot seeds contain a wide variety of bioactive compounds and that consumption can decrease blood pressure and total blood cholesterol levels, fight oxidative stress and maintain body weight. The aim of the study was to analyse body composition: body fat mass (BFM), fat free mass (FFM), skeletal muscle mass (SMM), body fat percentage (%BFM), visceral fat area (VFA), total body water (TBW)intracellular water (ICW) and extracellular water (ECW) and to evaluate the changes that occur after 6-weeks consumption of bitter apricot seeds. The study group finally consisted of 34 healthy adults volunteers (21 females and 13 males). Volunteers were recruited from the general population of Slovakia. Respondents were 23 -65 years old, where the average age of women was 40.65 ±11.31 years and the average age of men was 36.91 ±9.98 years. All participants were asked to consume 60 mg.kg -1 of body weight of bitter apricot seeds daily during 6 weeks. Body composition was diagnosed by multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (MFBIA) by InBody 720 (Biospace Co., Korea), which measures the total impedance at frequencies of 1, 5, 50, 100, 500, 1000 kHz. At baseline mean body weight was 85.78 14.66 and 62.84 ±12.19 kg in the male and female participants, respectively. After 6 weeks of consumation we observed non-significant decreasing of mean body weight. The mean BFM was 19.25 ±8.81 kg in the male group and 19.47 ±7.21 kg in the female group. After six weeks, BFM decreased non-significantly (on average 0.5 kg) in both groups. The mean FFM at baseline was 43.37 ±5.98 and 66.54 ±7.98 kg in the female and male participants, respectively. The statistical analysis confirmed that the increase of FFM (43.37 ±5.98 kg to 43.56 ±5.80 kg) in the female were statistically significant (p 0.05). VFA was greater in the men (82.04 ±39.82 cm 2 at baseline and 78.65 ±39.79 cm 2 after 6 weeks) comparison to women (79.82 ±29.03 cm 2 at baseline and 78.29 ±29.90 cm 2 after 6 weeks). The mean of TBW in males before the start of study was 48.78 ±5.77 kg and 47.88 ±5.57 kg after 6 weeks of consumption. The results of study show the small weight loss in the both group. Therefore, the results from this study indicate that daily consumption of bitter apricot seeds produce measurable health benefits, but further studies are also required.

Potential toxicity of cyanogenic glycoside amygdalin and bitter apricot seed in rabbits—Health status evaluation

“…Results of our previous apricot seeds/amygdalin studies described variety of effects, for example, small weight loss in humans after daily consumption of bitter apricot seeds (Kopčeková et al, ), significant decreasing effect on total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels in humans after 12 weeks of consumption (Kopčeková et al, ), effect on mineral management of the human body (Tušimová, Kováčik et al, ; Tušimová, Zbyňovská et al, ), potential impact on steroidogenesis in porcine granulose cells in vitro (Halenár, Medveďová, Maruniaková, & Kolesárová, ), but no effect on endocrine regulators in vivo (Halenár et al, ) and a slight increase in renal parenchyma dystrophy of rabbits fed apricot seeds (Kolesárová et al, ).…”