Composition and thermal profile of crude palm oil and its products

Gas-liquid chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were used to determine fatty acids and triglyceride (TG) compositions of c rude palm oil (CPO), refined, bleached, and deodorized (RBD) palm oil, RED palm olein, and RED palm stearin, while their thermal profiles were analyze d by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The HPLC chromatograms showed that the TG composition of CPO and RED palm oil were quite similar. The re sults showed that CPO, RED palm oil, RED olein, and superolein consist main ly of monosaturated and disaturated TG while RED palm stearin consists main ly of disaturated and trisaturated TG. In DSC cooling thermograms the peaks of triunsaturated, monosaturated and disaturated TG were found at the rang e of -48.62 to -60.36, -25.89 to -29.19, and -11.22 to -1.69 degrees C, res pectively, while trisaturated TG were found between 13.72 and 27.64 degrees C. The heating thermograms of CPO indicated the presence of polymorphs mor phs beta(2)', alpha, and beta(1)'. The peak of CPO was found at 4.78 degree s C. However, after refining, the peak shifted to 6.25 degrees C and became smaller but more apparent as indicated by RED palm oil thermograms. The he ating and cooling thermograms of the RED palm stearin were characterized by a sharp, high-melting point (high-T) peak temperature and a short and wide low-melting point (low-T) peak temperature, indicating the presence of occ luded olein. However, for RED palm olein, there was only an exothermic low- T peak temperature. The DSC thermograms expressed the thermal behavior of v arious palm oil and its products quite well, and the profiles can be used a s guidelines for fractionation of CPO or RED palm oil.