Consumption of bitter apricot seeds affects lipid and endocrine profile in women

Abstract

Natural products have been attracting increasing attention in human diet, both due to the possible negative effects of synthetic food additives on human health and the increased consumer perception. Apricot seeds contain a wide variety of bioactive components and their consumption is associated with a reduced risk of chronic diseases. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of consumption of bitter apricot seeds on blood lipid and endocrine profile in Slovak women (n = 18, 41.60 ± 11.28 years) of reproductive age. Volunteers consumed 60 mg.kg⁻¹ of body weight of bitter apricot seeds divided into 8-12 doses daily for 42 days. During the experiment, three blood collections were carried out (at the beginning of the experiment - day 0, and after 21 and 42 days of consumption apricot seeds). Lipid profile was measured in terms of – total cholesterol (T-C, enzymatic photometric method), low-density cholesterol (LDL-C, calculated using the Friedewald equation), high-density cholesterol (HDL-C, direct clearance method), triglycerides (TG, enzymatic colorimetric method) whereas endocrine profile - follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), prolactin (PRL), progesterone (P4), 17β-estradiol (E2), testosterone, and androstenedione was assessed by ELISA. The blood levels of T-C, HDL-C and T-C did not change significantly (P > 0.05), however, the level of LDL-C decreased significantly (P < 0.05) after 42 days. On the other hand, there was a significant (P < 0.05) increase of T-C and TG after 21 days. The blood level of FSH, testosterone and androstenedione increased significantly (P < 0.05) although the levels of LH, PRL, P4 and E2 did not change (P > 0.05) after 42 days. The level of PRL and testosterone significantly (P < 0.05) increased and E2 significantly decreased after 21 days of apricot seeds consumption. The study suggests that daily consumption of apricot seeds may affect plasma lipid and endocrine profile in women of reproductive age.

Keywords:

• Apricot seeds
• women
• cholesterol
• triglyceride
• LH
• FSH
• progesterone
• estradiol
• testosterone
• androstenedione

Declaration of interest

The authors have reported that no competing interests exist.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic projects APVV-18-0312, DS-FR-19-0049, VEGA 1/0266/20, The Excellent scientific team “Center of Animal Reproduction (CeRA)”, the Operational Program Integrated Infrastructure within the project: Demand-driven research for the sustainable and inovative food, Drive4SIFood 313011V336, cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund, and AgroBioTech Research Centre built in accordance with the project Building „AgroBioTech" Research Centre ITMS 26220220180.