Chemical Characterization of Cocoplum (Chrysobalanus icaco, L) Seed Oil and Seeds

Cocoplum ( Chrysobalanus icaco, L) fruits contains seeds that can produce an edible oil. The goals of this study were to measure the physical chemical properties of the seeds and seed oil and to analyze the oil by 1 H and 13 C{ 1 H}-NMR to identify the types of fats, as well as the whole seeds by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) linked to atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) to quantify the metals. In addition, the fatty acyl composition of the oil was determined by gas chromatography (GC) after hydrolyzing the triacylglycerides in the oil and esterifying the fatty acids produced. The density, refractive index, iodine index and saponification number for cocoplum seed oil were 0.9278 g•mL -1 , 1.508, 107 gI 2 •100 g -1 and 180 mg KOH•g -1 , respectively. The seeds contained potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, iron, manganese, zinc and copper at concentrations of 340, 93.4, 30, 173, 2.9, 0.8, 0.8 and 0.67 mg•g -1 , respectively. They also contained 24.9 g•100 g -1 of total carbohydrates. This included 19.8 and 0.07 g•100 g -1 of insoluble and soluble fiber. The seed oil was found to contain triacylglycerides with a large amount of unsaturated fats, including conjugated linoleic fatty acyls. GC analysis of the hydrolyzed fats indicated the presence of palmitic, stearic, oleic and linoleic acids in the hydrolysate. https://doi.org/10.21423/jrs-v05n02p015 (DOI assigned 3/11/2019)