DERIVATION OF A COCOA BUTTER EQUIVALENT FROM JOJOBA TRANSESTERIFIED ESTER VIA A DIFFERENTIAL SCANNING CALORIMETRY INDEX

A series of wax ester blends was constructed by transesterifying nativ e jojoba oil with 50-500 g kg(-1) completely hydrogenated jojoba wax e sters. This series, when subjected to a standardised differential scan ning calorimetry (DSC) tempering method gave either 1, 2 or 3 enthalpi c events which represented the diunsaturated, monounsaturated and satu rated species. These species were verified by measuring the melting po ints of a native and completely hydrogenated jojoba wax ester and also by demonstration that DSC thermograms of a synthetic monounsaturated wax ester possessed an endotherm with a melt between the diunsaturated and completely saturated species. The heats of fusion and heats of cr ystallisation enthalpies of all three enthalpic events exhibited excel lent correlation with the level of saturation. Chemometric indices wer e devised from heats of fusion and crystallisation enthalpies to estim ate the level of saturation in these blends. From these indices and al so from regression analyses of each species' individual events we coul d optimise the level of saturation needed to best mimic the melt and c rystallisation properties of cocoa butter. The wax ester blend with 40 0 g kg(-1) saturation most closely resembled the thermal properties of cocoa butter where the monounsaturated species of the jojoba blend ga ve identical thermograms to tempered cocoa butter.