Diacylglycerol Oil

Scientific Name(s): Diacylglycerol oil
Common Name(s): DAG oil, Enova, Healthy Econa

Medically reviewed by Drugs.com. Last updated on Jul 7, 2021.

Clinical Overview

Use

Clinical trials have focused on the use of diacylglycerol (DAG) oil as adjunctive therapy for weight loss and body fat reduction, especially in metabolic syndrome. However, few quality, independent clinical trials have been conducted, with the majority of published clinical trials conducted by the Kao Corporation, primarily in Japanese populations.

Dosing

DAG oil has been used in clinical trials as replacement for usual consumption of cooking oil, as well as at a variety of fixed daily dosages.

Contraindications

Contraindications have not yet been identified.

Pregnancy/Lactation

Information regarding safety and efficacy in pregnancy and lactation is lacking.

Interactions

None well documented.

Adverse Reactions

Clinical trials have reported few or no adverse effects.

Toxicology

Chronic rat toxicity studies have revealed no treatment-related effects of DAG oil consumption at levels of up to 5.5% of the diet. No evidence of gene mutation or genotoxic potential has been demonstrated in Ames mutation tests.

History

DAG oil was developed in Japan and launched in February 1999 by Kao Corporation as Healthy Econa cooking oil and is now widely used for cooking and salad oil in Japan. Kao Corporation has since introduced DAG in other products, such as mayonnaise, margarine, and canned tuna.Hunter 2002, Yanai 2007

In 2000, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Kao and its partner, Archer Daniels Midland Company, "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) status for their DAG oil product. In the United States, DAG oil is commercially available as Enova oil and may be used in home cooking and vegetable oil spreads.Final Report 2007

Chemistry

DAG oil is made from the esterification of fatty acids originating from natural edible plant oils, such as soybean and rapeseed oils.Final Report 2007, Umemura 2008, Yanai 2007 DAG oil contains only 2 fatty acids and, therefore, has metabolic characteristics distinct from those of conventional triacylglycerol (TAG) oils containing 3 fatty acids.Tada 2003 DAG oil is more hydrophilic and water soluble when synthesized enzymatically with the reverse reaction of 1,3-specific lipase.Matsuo 2001, Tada 2003, Yanai 2007 Standardized DAG oil contains 1,2-DAG and 1,3-DAG in a 3:7 ratio.Final Report 2007

The proposed mechanism of action involves the main digestive product of DAG oil, 1- (or 3-)monoacylglycerol, which is poorly re-esterified into TAG in the small intestinal mucosa.Yanai 2007

Uses and Pharmacology

The majority of published clinical trials have been conducted by the Kao Corporation, primarily among Japanese populations. The design of some of the trials also limits the strength of the findings. Issues present in some of the trials were that they were open-label and single-blind, small sample size with post-hoc subgroup analysis, and inadequate randomization as evidenced by differences in the study groups at onset of the study.

Few quality, independent clinical trials conducted in American populations are available in the literature.Reyes 2008

Metabolic Syndrome

The majority of studies report the effect of DAG oil consumption on ...