Physico-chemical characteristics and nutraceutical distribution of crude palm oil and its fractions

Crude palm oil (CRPO) was dry fractionated at 25 degrees C to get crude palm olein (CRPOL, 77%) and crude palm stearin (CRPS, 23%). Low and high melting crude palm stearin (LMCRPS 14.3% and HMCRPS 8.7%) were separated by further fractionation of CRPS with acetone. The physico-chemical parameters and nutraceutical distribution showed variation in different fractions. The CRPO contained 514.7 mg.Kg(-1) of beta-carotene and 82.6%, 16.1%, 12.5% and 3.1% of it was distributed in CRPOL, CRPS, LMCRPS and HMCRPS respectively. The distribution of phytosterols in fraction was 1870.2, 1996.8, 1190.9, 1290.4 and 115.4 mg.Kg(-1) for CRPO, CRPOL, CRPS, LMCRPS and HMCRPS respectively. Total tocopherol composition was 535.5, 587.1, 308.0, 305.6 and 36.2 mg.Kg(-1) for CRPO, CRPOL, CRPS, LMCRPS and HMCRPS respectively. The results show that the fractionation of CRPO may be helpful in the preparation of nutraceutical-rich fractions.