Asian Basic and Applied Research Journal

Coconut oil is a kernel oil that is extracted from the coconut fruit by either wet mill or dry milling method. In this study, coconut oil was extracted by the wet mill method using various techniques namely 'wet mill'/chilling/boiling, wet mill/boiling and wet mill/ fermentation/boiling methods respectively. Compounds in the various oil extracts were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. Results indicated the presence of 24, 19 and 18 compounds in oils extracted by 'wet mill'/chilling/boiling, wet mill/boiling and wet mill/fermentation/boiling methods respectively. There was a low relative abundance of free dodecanoic acid but abundance of dodecanoic acid esters namely dodecanoic acid, 1(hydroxymethyl)-1,2-ethyanediyl ester, dodecanoic acid, 2-hydroxy-1-(hydroxymethyl) ethyl ester and dodecanoic acid -2,3-dihydroxy propyl ester in the respective oils. Oil extracted by 'wet mill'/boiling technique had a higher relative abundance of n-hexadecanoic acid, 9-octadecenoic acid (Z) and octadecanoic with less relative abundance of dodecanoic acid and dodecanoic acid esters than in oils extracted by 'wet mill'/chilling/boiling as well as 'wet mill'/fermentation/boiling technique. The respective extraction techniques resulted to a variation in fatty acids and flavor compounds found in the respective coconut oil samples. Wet mill'/fermentation/boiling had better effects in giving a product which had a good concentration of lauric acid and its derivatives than 'wet mill'/boiling method.