CHEMICAL ASPECTS OF CHLOROPHYLL BREAKDOWN PRODUCTS AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO CANOLA OIL STABILITY

The production of prooxidant compounds brought about through subjectin g chlorophyll a or pheophytin a to laboratory-scale processing in the presence of canola oil or tricapryloylglycerol was investigated. The a ddition of chlorophyll a (60 ppm) to canola oil prior to processing re sulted in an oil of lowered stability. No large contribution to the pr oduced instability by any one processing step was found when pheophyti n a was added (60 ppm) to canola oil prior to processing. To isolate t he effect of processing on the pigment, tricapryloylglycerol was used in the place of unsaturated canola oil as a carrier for pheophytin a ( 60 ppm). A control consisted of processed tricapryloylglycerol that ha d no added pheophytin prior to processing. The subsequent addition of pigment-treated processed tricapryloylglycerol to linseed oil (1:1, w/ w) caused a decrease in the stability of the latter, when compared wit h the control. No differences were observed between the prooxidant tri capryloylglycerol and the control tricapryloylglycerol by methods invo lving ultraviolet spectroscopy and thin-layer or gas chromatography.