Vitamin A deficiency is one of the most widespread
nutritional deficiencies worldwide. Hundreds of millions of children and
tens of millions of women living in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia are at particularly high risk of the adverse health consequences associated with this largely preventable condition. Red
palm oil comes from oil palms that are traditionally grown in tropical regions of West Africa and are now cultivated on a large-scale commercial basis in Southeast Asia. Red
palm oil is the richest naturally occurring source of
beta-carotene, a
carotenoid that the human body can convert into usable
vitamin A (
retinol). This paper reviews a series of key intervention studies designed to investigate the impact of using red
palm oil-based interventions to improve
vitamin A status. These included studies from Africa, Asia, and Latin America in which red
palm oil was used (or proposed for use) (1) as a dietary supplement, (2) as an in-home fortificant, (3) to fortify foods used for distribution in targeted supplementary feeding programs, and (4) to fortify staple food products. Overall, the results suggest that red
palm oil is highly efficacious in improving
vitamin A status among populations at risk of
vitamin A deficiency. The time has come to move beyond trials of
biological efficacy and focus on conducting operational research projects, effectiveness trials, and cost-benefit analyses that will help expand the use of red
palm oil in areas where it is likely to be well accepted but remains underutilized as a dietary source of
provitamin A.