The physico-chemical characteristics of blends of palm olein and palm kernel oil which were further modified by chemical interesterification were studied. The slip melting points of non-interesterified blends were 19.7, 16.2, 14.5, 14.5 and 14.4°C while those of the chemically interesterified blends were 17.7, 16.2, 19.8, 18.7 and 18.7°C at 40, 30, 20, 10 and 0% palm kernel oil, respectively. Chemical interesterification lowered the solid fat content of the pure samples and blends across different temperatures except 90% palm olein at 15°C where the solid fat content was higher than for non-interesterified samples. Palm kernel oil, palm olein and their blends before and after chemical interesterification, crystallized mainly in the b 0 form. However, chemical interesterification modified the microstructure from a combination of fat particles with void regions of crystalline materials to fat particles without regions of void crystalline materials. Palm olein and palm kernel oil blends are mainly used for food preparation in Nigeria. This study has shown that there are no significant differences in the physical and chemical properties of non-chemically interesterified and chemically interesterified blends of palm olein and palm kernel oil. This implies that blending of palm olein and palm kernel oil without chemical interesterification can provide the fluidity desirable at ambient temperatures for food applications in the tropics.

Coconut oil (Cocos nucifera L.) has a unique role in the diet as an important physiologically functional food. The health and nutritional benefits that can be derived from consuming coconut oil have been recognized in many parts of the world for centuries. The aim of this study was to compare the quality parameters of coconut oil under different common extraction techniques. Six different techniques of coconut oil extraction were employed to produce virgin coconut oil (VCOs) and refined coconut oil (RCO). VCOs were produced using enzymatic, chilling and thawing, centrifugation, natural-fermentation and induced-fermentation processes. The highest oil yield (83%) was from RCO and also RCO had a significantly higher peroxide value (1.06 meq/kg oil) than VCO samples. Antioxidant activity of RCO was significantly (p<0.5) lower than those of VCO samples, with induced-fermentation having the highest antioxidant activity of 28.3%. Interestingly, enzymatic extraction resulted in higher quantity of shortchain triglycerides. Although, there was no method which could result significantly in high quantity of all the tested parameters, induced-fermentation showed relatively high oil yield and antioxidant activity.

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Oil palm calyx is a solid waste in the oil palm industry which is yet to find economic usage. This study aimed to determine the feasibility of recovering phospholipids from the oil palm calyx. Preliminary functional property of calyx phospholipids was determined using emulsion stability. Results indicated that oil palm calyx had 14% total lipids when extracted with methanol and 62.3% of lipids were acetone insoluble lipids (phospholipids). Methanol extracted phospholipids showed that the highest concentration of total phospholipids (1971 mg/L) with phosphatidylcholine (PC) have been the predominant phospholipid. The calyx phospholipids stabilized oil in water emulsion at 2% concentration. The study serves as a foundation on the positive usage of oil palm calyx in producing industrial phospholipids.

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