Extractaion, Characterization and Physiochemical Properties of Melon Seed Oil

In this research, Melon seeds oil was extracted using n-Hexane as an extracting solvent by soxhlet extraction method. The physiochemical properties was conducted to determine some necessary parameters of the extracted oil( Acid value, Saponification value, Iodine value and Peroxide value) and FT-IR analysis was employed to identify the functional group of the extracted oil. The results revealed that the oil was golden yellow colour, oil content was found to be 35%, acid value 7.07mg/g, saponification value158.82mg/g, iodine value 113.31g/100g, and peroxide value 5.07meq/kg. The results indicated that the oil are semi drying oil which are suitable for industrial application such as soap, cosmetics, paints and medicine due to the high iodine and saponification value. The low acid and peroxide value suggest that the oil are suitable against oxidation and rancidity. The FTIR spectra show that the oil contain some high degree of unsaturated fatty triglycerides which suggests that the oil has not been activated or used for any reaction and it suitable for epoxidation and others group present are in agreed with results of some reviewed literatures.