Carica papaya’s Varieties Improved Obesity, Insulin Resistance and Atherogenic Risk in Rats Fed with Oxidised Palm Oil and Sucrose Diet

In the recent years, obesity has become more prevalent owing to increase habit sedentary. According to many studies, physical activities and nutritherapy could be complementary solutionto this problem. Pawpaw (Carica papaya) is a tropical fruit highly consumed for its flavour and nutritive properties. The present studywas carried out to investigate the effect of some pawpaw’s varieties’ juice on obesity, insulin resistance and atherogenic riskin albino rats under oxidised palm oil and sucrose diet. Healthy males and females Wistar rats received during 13 weeks every day a supplement of oxidised palm oil (25%) sucrose (25%). At the end of this period, animals presenting obesity, insulin resistance and glucose intolerancecharacteristics were randomly separated into 6 groups. Three of these groups (satellite control groups (G III, G IV and G V) returned to standard diet and received a supplement of smooth cayenne and spanich variety of pawpaw (1 ml/100g), while thethree others groups (OPOS control groups G II, G VI and G VII) continued with oxidised palm oil and sucrose diet (OPOS), and received a supplement of smooth cayenne and spanich variety of pawpaw (1 ml/100g), respectively during 12 weeks. Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) was performed and insulin sensitivity was assessed by performing insulin tolerance test, then determining insulin index (Kitt). Body weight, Lee index, naso-anal length, abdominal fat mass, BMI, faeces relative weight and lipid profilewere measured; Atherogenic risk was calculated. OPOS diet induced overall obesity, abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia and atherogenic risk, and thenreduced Faeces relative weight in animals (P< 0.001 respectively). Treatment with two varieties of pawpaw fresh juice significantly (P< 0.001) reduced Lee index, naso-anal length, abdominal fat mass andBMI, and increased faeces weight; Glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity were restored; the lipid profile was improved and the atherogenic risk eliminated both in males and females. These results highlight the obesogenic, hyperglycaemic and dyslipidemic characters of OPOS diet, and show the benefits of pawpaw fresh juice on these metabolic diseases. With complementary studies, we will recommend the consumption of this fruit as complementary solution for theprevention and/or the management of the cardiometabolic risk.