EFFECTS OF MOISTURE CONTENT AND SOLVENT TYPE ON OIL PROPERTIES AND YIELD OF FLUTED PUMPKIN SEED OIL

Abstract

The quantity of extractable oil obtained from oilseeds is usually influenced by the moisture content of the oil seeds at the time of extraction. This work was conducted to study the effect of moisture content and extraction solvent on the oil yield from fluted pumpkin seed (Telferiaoccidentalis).The oilseed were conditioned to three different moisture contents of 5, 8 and 10 %. The two extraction solvents used were n-hexane and petroleum ether, using the soxhlet equipment the extracted oils were also characterized. The highest oil yield of fluted pumpkin seeds was 49.40 % at 5 % moisture content, while the lowest oil yield of 34.19 % at 10 % moisture content using n-hexane solvent. In the case of petroleum ether, the results were 49.73% at 5% moisture content. The result of the physicochemical analysis showed that there is significant difference between n-haxane and petroleum ether; for n-hexane, the values of free fatty acid FFA(mg/KOH/g), saponification value SV(mg/g), Iodine value IV(g/100g), Peroxide value PV(mmol), Specific gravity SG, Refractive index RI, and Viscosity VIS values were15.98, 415.23, 96.45, 12.33, 0.82, 1.45, and 119.23, respectively, while petroleum ether had, 15, 415.15, 99.5, 12.55, 0.78, 1.48, and 121.32, respectively. It was concluded from this study that moisture content and solvent type had great influence in determining oil yield, also n-hexane extraction was more efficient. The highest oil yield was obtained at 5% moisture content using n-hexane.