Serum Cholesterol in Man and the Unsaponifiable Fraction of Corn Oil in the Diet. ∗ †

Summary

1) Comparison of corn oil with 4 other oils of the linoleic-oleic acid type consistently indicated that corn oil in the diet produced slightly lower serum cholesterol values than those predicted, on the basis of fatty acid composition, by the multiple regression equation previously described. The mean discrepancy in 4 sets of switchback dietary comparisons with 13 to 25 men each and using 100 g of each oil in the daily diet was 9 mg/100 ml. 2) The source of this discrepancy was sought by feeding in a switchback experiment a daily supplement containing 0.88 g of unsaponifiable matter from corn oil, equivalent to that in 55 g of corn oil, added to a diet containing 140 g of fat of which 100 g was a mixture of safflower and cottonseed oils imitating corn oil. 3) Addition of unsaponifiable matter produced a mean decrease of 3.2 mg of cholesterol/100 ml of serum. Although this effect is statistically non-significant, it matches the discrepancy observed in the earlier comparisons. It is concluded that the unsaponifiable matter of 100 g of corn oil lowers serum cholesterol by something between 6 and 12 mg 100 ml.