Characterization of Oil Extracted from Two Varieties of Tiger Nut (Cyperus esculentus L.) Tubers

The qualitative determination of fatty acids from hexane extract of two varieties of Cyperus esculentus L. tuber oil using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis revealed the following fatty acids; palmitic acid, steric acid, Margaric acid, elaidic acid, oleic acid, erucic acid, behenic acid. and arachidic acid. For the Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FT-IR) analysis, bands of 3469.09 cm-1, 3463.3 cm-1, sharp bands at 2867.28 cm-1, 2037.86 cm-1 and 2866.32 cm-1 asymmetrical and symmetrical modes of vibration of –CH2-, strong band 1742.74 cm-1 and 1743.71 cm-1 due to ester carbonyl functional group of the triacylglycerols, bending vibrations of the CH2 and CH3 aliphatic groups,(C-CO-O- and O-CH2-C) and the in-planebending vibration of CH cis-olefinic groups seen at 1449.55 cm-1, 1364 cm-1 and 1450.52 cm-1, 1365.65, and 1450.52 cm-1, 1365.65 cm-1, vibration frequency at, 1166.97 cm-1 finger print of the stretching vibration of the C-O ester group, frequencies of the in-and out-of plane rocking of the cis-olefinic CH2 group at 718.51 cm-1 were observed for the brown and yellow tiger nut tubers oil respectively. The results were in favour of the utilization of the two varieties of Tiger nut (Cyperus esculentus L.) tubers oil in cosmetics, polymer and food industries.