Anais do Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciências de Alimentos
Actas del 14 SLACA - Simposio Latinoamericano de Ciencia de los Alimentos

Palm oil is the most produced and used vegetable oil in the world with applications in the food and biofuels industry. However, the Brazilian production of palm oil is small and, in the search for greater productivity, several varietals are developed that, together with the difference in productivity, carry different physicochemical properties. The objective of this work was to analyze, by gas chromatography (GC) and time-domain nuclear magnetic resonance (TD-NMR), the fatty acid composition (FA), iodine index (IV), and solidus curve in the oils of nine palm varietals developed and cultivated by the company Denpasa. Each varietal presented a different solidus curve, a consequence of a different fatty acid profile. Nine FA were identified, the smallest sum of saturated fatty acids (SFA) being 305.62 mg.g-1 and the largest, 505.72 mg.g-1. For monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) the sums ranged between 329.24 - 548.55 mg.g-1, while the smallest sums were for polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), from 85.64 - 141.26 mg.g-1. The IV ranged between 52.72 - 76.09 g I2 100 oil−1. The major variations in the FA concentration were: palmitic acid (283.74 - 450.02 mg.g-1) which provides thermal and oxidative stability to palm oil, oleic acid (329.24 - 545.13 mg.g-1), and linoleic (83.12 - 136.05 mg.g-1). The data obtained show a large variation in the fatty acid profile for palm varietals. This information is important to select the most suitable varietals for the production of biodiesel and those most promising for use in the food industry.

Acknowledgments: UTFPR, CAPES, CNPq e CAMulti-CM.