Effect of Processing on Physicochemical Properties and Fatty Acid Composition of Fluted Pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis) Seed Oil

Abstract

This paper reports the physicochemical properties and fatty acid composition of the seed oil extracted from fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis). The extracted oil was degummed, neutralised and bleached. The oil yield was 42.26±0.20%. The specific gravity (at 25 °C) of the oil was 0.923±0.003 and the refractive index (at 25 °C) was 1.475±0.002. Processing of the crude oil resulted in progressive decrease in turbidity, colour, free fatty acid, acid value, peroxide value and saponification value. However, there was increase in smoke point (243.00±0.03 to 253.00±0.03 °C), flash point (285.00±1.20 to 304.00±1.10 °C) and fire point (345.00±1.10 to 358.00±1.55 °C) as well as iodine value (113.00 to 121.50 g/100 g) and fatty acid composition during the processing of the oil. The fatty acids detected in the oil samples were myristic, palmitic, stearic, oleic, arachidic, behenic, linoleic and linolenic acids. The predominant fatty acid was oleic acid (47.40-47.90%) followed by linoleic acid (26.36-30.44%) while the least fatty acidwas linolenic acid (0.01-0.05%).