Investigation on Ferulic Acid Content in Oil Palm and Influence of Alkali on its Release

Abstract

Oil palm is widely cultivated in tropical countries, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia, for food and oleochemicals and recently as biodiesel. Besides its oil components, the oil palm also contains antioxidative compounds such as carotenes and tocols (tocopherols and tocotrienols). This study reports the hydrolysis and quantitation of a water-soluble antioxidant, ferulic acid, from different parts of the oil palm. The contents of ferulic acid in the oil palm frond, oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB), fruits (sterilised and unsterilised) and oil palm mesocarp fibre were found to range from ca. 1.43 – 3.62 mg/g. Among the various parts of oil palm studied, mesocarp fibre was found to contain the highest concentration of ferulic acid (3.62 ± 0.14 mg g-1) followed by palm frond (2.88 ± 0.15 mg g-1) while 2.02 ± 0.14 mg g-1 ferulic acid was obtained from EFB. The concentrations of NaOH and duration of hydrolysis played significant role in the hydrolysis of oil palm that led to the release of ferulic acid. The findings from this study will be able to help develop more applications for the oil palm and its biomass, rendering it to be a multi-disciplinary and sustainable industry.