STUDIES ON COCUS NUCIFERA AS FUNCTIONAL FOODS IN TREATMENT OF ULCERATIVE COLITIS

This study investigated the potential of Cocus nucifera (coconut) milk as a functional food in the prevention and management of non communicable disease such as ulcerative colitis.Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate was induced in the experimental rats for 2weeks to cause intestinal injury. The experimental rats are divided into groups(control group, n = 5) and treatment group(n = 20) given fermented, unfermented coconut milk, and cimetidin. The experiment lasted fifteen days microbial fecal analysis, microbial load, animal weight, behavioral tests, biochemical parameters and histopathological alteration were monitored. The molecular analysis successfully identify several bacteria specie with high similarities to known strain in the NCBI database. The identified organisms include Enterobacter hormaechei, klepsiella aerogenes, Enterobacter cloaclae, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Lactobacillus delbrueckii and Streptococcus thermophilus.Biochemical analysis reveal that SDS induction caused a marked increase in hepatic enzymes- AST,but not significantly different in -ALT,ALP, LDL, and LDH. However, histopathological examination of intestinal tissue shows that SDS exposure results in villus distortion, epithelial necrosis, and inflammatory infiltration. The fermented cocus nucifera have low density lipoprotein(LDL) compared to unfermented and cimetridin treated rats in serum. Therefore, unfermented Cocus nucifera milk and cimetridin demonstrates strong potential as a functional food for maintaining intestinal health and mitigating colonic inflammation. Administration of unfermented coconut milk significantly ameliorated these biochemical imbalances, restoring antioxidant enzymes activities and normalizing lipid profiling.