Food & Nutrition

Arab Journal of Food & Nutrition
2. Effect of Different Levels of Coffee Bean Roasting and Addition of Cardamon
to Arabic Coffee on Blood Lipids in Healthy Male Volunteers (2001)
Ahmad M. Sandookah\ University of Jordan
Supervisor: Dr. Salma K. Tukan
Co-Supervisor: Dr. Mohammad A. Humied
The effects of drinking boiled coffee prepared from three different coffee roasts
(light, medium and dark) with and without cardamon as well as the effect of pure
cardamon drink on blood lipids and blood pressure were investigated. This study was
conducted on a sample (n=50) of adult healthy male volunteers and consisted of two
main stages, the first is coffee withdrawal stage during which the volunteers were
requested to abstain from drinking all types of coffee for two weeks. The second stage
is the coffee/cardamon drinking stage, at the beginning of which, the volunteers were
divided into eight groups and randomly assigned to seven treatments. The eighth group
of subjects with no coffee/cardamon drinking was considered as a control. The
amounts of coffee and cardamon grounds used in the preparation of the coffee and
cardamon drinks were 80 and 40 g/l of boiling water respectively, and the amount of
cardamon added to the roasted coffee was (15% w:w). Subjects were requested to
drink four (125 ml/cup) cups a day of the assigned drink as the only source of coffee
for four weeks. Also they were requested to maintain their habitual dietary patterns
throughout the two stages of the study. At the end of each stage, an overnight fasting
blood sample was taken from each subject; body weight and blood pressure were also
measured. The blood samples were immediately analyzed for total cholesterol, HDLcholesterol
and trigylcerides. LDL-.Cholesterol was calculated.
The results indicated that changes( presented as Mean ± SEM) in serum
concentrations of TC and LDL-C of subjects who consumed coffee prepared from
either dark (30.2 ±1.4 and 28.5 ± 1.6) or light (40.0 ±2.4 and 31.5 ±2.4) roasts without
cardamon were significantly higher (p