ABSTRACT
The focus of this study is to produce quality degummed and refined vegetable oil from crude palm oil (CPO). The different processes of bleaching are treatment of sample for degumming, temperature treatment and refining of the oil. Degumming process was carried out using phosphoric acid (0.1%) treatment, temperature treatment was achieved by heating the treated palm oil at 90oC for 7 mins. The refining of the heat treated palm oil was carried out by treating 100ml of degummed temperature treated CPO with 0.2, 2.0, 20.0, and 30.0 mg of the polysaccharide solution. The values obtained for β carotene (mg/kg) for CPO, Standard, 0.2, 2.0, 20.0, and 30.0 mg/100ml are 25.9±0.610, 0.1±0.019, 2.2±0.032, 2.0±0.035, 1.8±0.027 and 1.7 ±0.031respectively. The values obtained for iodine number (g/10g) for CPO, Standard, 0.2, 2.0, 20.0, and 30.0 mg/100ml are 5.6±0.000, 4.8±0.000, 5.3±0.000, 5.2±0.000 4.8±0.000, 4.1±0.000 respectively. The values obtained for percentage colour removal (%) for 0.2, 2.0, 20.0, and 30.0 mg/100ml are 91.60±0.12, 92.36±0.13, 93.03±0.11 and 93.41±0.12 respectively. The values for peroxide value (Meq/kg) for CPO, Standard, 0.2, 2.0, 20.0, and 30.0 mg/100ml are 23.23±0.008, 22.40±0.008, 21.34±0.008, 21.11±0.008, 20.11±0.008, 19.84±0.008 respectively. The values gotten for refractive index (40oC) for CPO, Standard, 0.2, 2.0, 20.0, and 30.0 mg/100ml are 1.4556±0.000, 1.4663±0.000, 1.4649±0.000, 1.4653±0.000, 1.4659±0.000 and1.4664±0.000 respectively. The values obtained for specific gravity (g/ml) for CPO, Standard, 0.2, 2.0, 20.0, and 30.0 mg/100ml are 0.962±0.000, 0.922±0.000, 0.917±0.000, 0.902±0.000, 0.852±0.000, 0.835±0.000 respectively. The refractive index values when compared with reference sample were found to be non significant at P<0.05. Further Research is probably needed to obtain final product which is comparable with the commercially available vegetable oil.
