DETERMINATION OF IODINE VALUE OF PALM OIL-BASED ON TRIGLYCERIDE COMPOSITION

The triglyceride (TG) composition of palm oil is normally determined b y high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The HPLC chromatogram s indicated a good separation of most of the TG components in the oil. The TG can be classified based on either the TG groups, i.e., triunsa turated, monosaturated, disaturated, or trisaturated, or the number of double bonds, i.e., zero, one, two, three, or four double bonds. The more unsaturated the fatty acid, the greater the iodine value (IV). Th erefore, it is hypothesized that the IV of an oil can be determined ba sed upon the TG composition of the oil. Based on the TG groups, stepwi se regression analysis showed that the areas of the disaturated, trisa turated, and triunsaturated TG peaks could predict the IV with a coeff icient of determination (R-2) of 0.990. The regression based on the nu mber of double bonds yielded a good regression equation with R-2 = 0.9 92. The important variables were the peak area of the fatty acids that contained zero, one, two, and three double bonds. This study conclude s that the TG composition can be used to predict the IV of palm oil. T he best prediction model is obtained by using the number of double bon ds in the TG as the independent variable.