Another coconut-producing country, Sri Lanka, has expressed interest in conducting a similar clinical trial on VCO as an adjunct therapy for COVID-19 afflicted patients in the South Asian island nation. (Photo from Philstar) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] MANILA: The successful clinical study of the Department of Science and Technology-Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) that showed virgin coconut oil (VCO) as an effective functional food that helps in the treatment of COVID-19 patients, done last year in Santa Rosa, Laguna, is set to go international, PhilStar reported.
Another coconut-producing country, Sri Lanka, has expressed interest in conducting a similar clinical trial on VCO as an adjunct therapy for COVID-19 afflicted patients in the South Asian island nation. Science Secretary Fortunato dela Peña said that stalwarts of the coconut industry in Sri Lanka are already coordinating with the DOST-FNRI for their conduct of a VCO clinical study on COVID-19 patients to test its therapeutic benefits versus the coronavirus. The Sri Lankans, Dela Peña said, will soon meet with FNRI director Imelda Agdeppa and Ateneo de Manila University professor Fabian Dayrit, who both led the VCO clinical trials in Santa Rosa for a briefing on the Philippine VCO study.
Agdeppa said that the cooperation effort is still being planned out. “They are setting a meeting with us to discuss our findings and maybe possibly conduct the study in their country,” Agdeppa told The STAR. The results of the DOST-FNRI VCO clinical trials have been published in an international scientific journal, the Journal of Functional Foods, last May.