Male weaning Wistar rats (weighing 100–110 g) were randomly
collected from the Medical Research Institute, Colombo. They were
placed individually in cages and housed in a room with a temperature
range of 25 ± 2 C with a 12 h light-darkness cycle. Prior to
the initiation of the experiment, the rats were acclimatised to the
basal diet for 6 days. Then the rats were randomly assigned to
treatment groups (5 rats/group) and fed diets containing tested
oils. The diet and water were given for a period of 86 days. They
had free access to food and water. The food intake was monitored
daily and the growth of animals was monitored weekly. The experimental
protocol was approved by the ethical committee of University
of Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka. The rats were anaesthetised
humanely under light diethyl ether and blood was collected
through the tail vein of each Wistar rat.