The Effect of Two Different Extraction Solvents on the Characteristics of Pili (Canarium Ovatum) Pulp Oil

Pili (Canarium ovatum) is a tropical tree that can be found in many countries including Malaysia. Research on pili pulp oil had been done in the Philippines, which this pulp always regarding as a waste. However, there is no literature on the Malaysian pili pulp oil. This study focused on the characteristics of oil extracted from pili pulp from Sabah in terms of chemical and physical properties. Soxhlet extraction method using petroleum ether and acetone as extraction solvents was used to extract the pulp oil. Pili pulp oil was green in colour by visualisation. Results showed significant differences (p<0.05) on oil yield, free fatty acid, fatty acid composition and carotene content of pili pulp oil extracted using these two different solvents. On the other hand, the cloud point and iodine value did not show any significant different (p<0.05) between two different extraction solvents. Petroleum ether-extracted pili pulp oil (PEPPO) showed higher yield of 40.97% as compared to AEPPO (37.87%), with significantly higher linoleic acid (3.97%) content. Whereas, AEPPO showed significantly higher palmitic acid (19.98%) and carotene (175.64 ppm) content. Due to lower degree of unsaturation in AEPPO, it had significantly (p<0.05) lower peroxide (11.38%), p-anisidine (5.75%) and TOTOX (28.51%) values. Concisely, due to higher carotene content in AEPPO resulted better oxidative stability as compared to PEPPO. Both extracted oils had triolein (OOO), dioleoyl palmitate (POO) and dioleoyl linolein (OOL) as the predominant triacylglycerols (TAG) species. This study showed that these two different extraction solvents would affect some characteristics of extracted pili pulp oil.