Comparative study of the chemical properties of palm oil extracted using medium-scale mill and traditional methods in southwest of Nigeria

Abstract

The chemical properties of palm oil processed using medium-scale mill and traditional method were investigated. Fresh fruit bunches of Tenera and Dura cultivars of 20, 30 and 50 years of age were processed. Six samples of oil palm fruitlets of both cultivars were investigated using medium-scale mill and another six oil palm samples were subjected to traditional method. The chemical properties of oil samples determined were free fatty acid, acid value, saponification value, peroxide value, iodine value and moisture content. The experimental design adopted was 3 x 2 x 2 factorial randomized complete block design in three replicates. The data of chemical properties of extracted palm oil samples were subjected to analysis of variance and significant means were separated using Tukey’s Honest Significant Difference. The results of chemical properties namely free fatty acid, acid value, saponification, peroxide, iodine and moisture content were: 2.10%, 4.29 mgKOH g oil , 165.60 mgKOH g oil, 7.94 mEq/kg oil, 52.83%, and 0.1%, respectively for palm oil of medium-scale mill method and 4.88%, 9.05 mgKOH g oil, 119.25 mgKOH g oil, 14.65 mEq/kg oil, 51.06% and 0.54%, respectively for the oil of traditional method. The chemical properties of mediumscale mill method palm oil were significantly different (p < 0.05) and of a better quality than traditional method using standard specifications.

Keywords: Fresh fruit bunches, standard specifications, sterilization, Tenera and Dura varieties