Optimization of the Aqueous Extraction of Virgin Coconut Oil by Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

Virgin coconut oil is a functional food which provides health benefits. It is different from other cooking oils in that it has medium-chain fatty acids rather than long-chain fatty acids. The traditional aqueous extraction of the oil is very flexible that can be applied in a medium to large-scale industry. The study was carried out to optimize the aqueous extraction of virgin coconut oil using response surface methodology. The most influencing three factors were used for this experiment, which are the coconut milk-to-water percentage, fermentation and refrigeration time. The optimization study showed that the method can produce the best yield with quality by using coconut milk (73.8%), fermented (14.1 h) and refrigerated time (20.5 h). Coconut milk percentage and fermentation time significantly affected the response of extraction yield (p ≤ 0.01). The aqueous extraction can be used commercially for the production of virgin coconut oil as the method is environmental friendly.