Research Article
Benedict O. Odjobo, Yilleng Mo
Abstract
The composition of fatty acids (FA) and physico chemical properties of Citrullus vulgaris, seed oil was investigated. The oil yield was obtained by solvent extraction and analyzed for fatty acids using Gas chromatography Mass spectroscopy (GC-MS).The oil yield of the plant was found to be 24.00±1.20%.Both saturated and unsaturated FA were identified in the seed oil with- linoleic acid (76.25%) and Palmitic acid (14.42%) as predominant compounds, while, stearic acid (9.01%) and oleic acid (0.33%) were low and physicochemical properties determined using standard methods. Refractive index (1.458), specific gravity (0.864), colour (Light Yellow), Iodine value (58.54), peroxide value (10mEq), free fatty acid value was 4.8% and acid value 9.6%. This is an important variable in considering the quality of the oil because the lower the free fatty acid, the better the quality of the oil. Also, saponification value obtained (255.2mgKOH/g) in this study thereby confirmed its industrial applications.