Bashir Oladapo Olaniyi; Omolara Olusola Oluwaniyi; Ibrahim Opeyemi Oloruntele; Hauwa Adenike Sekoni
Abstract
Blighia sapida, commonly known as ackee, is an inherent tree crop of West Africa which is prevalent in tropical and subtropical environments. Various parts of the ackee tree are employed ...
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Blighia sapida, commonly known as ackee, is an inherent tree crop of West Africa which is prevalent in tropical and subtropical environments. Various parts of the ackee tree are employed in traditional medicine for treatment of several ailments. However, limited information exists on the health benefits and composition of the fruit oils, thus the need for scientific knowledge of the composition, nutritional, antioxidant, physicochemical parameters, and the other properties of the fruit oils for its efficient utilization/ developmental purposes. Physicochemical properties and fatty acid composition of oils from the arils and seeds of ripe and unripe Blighia sapida (ackee) were quantified using standard analytical techniques. The specific gravity of the seed oils ranged between 0.85 - 0.88; saponification value of the oil of the ripe arils (146.74 ± 0.71) was much higher than those of the other oils under investigation, while the oil of the unripe seed had the lowest saponification value (76.10 ± 2.32). The ripe aril oil had the lowest acid value of 11.20 ± 4.65 mg/g, and ripe seed oil recorded the highest acid value of 42.09 ± 0.01 mg/g. The other parameters investigated include the ester value, iodine value, peroxide value, and the % Free Fatty Acid. The fatty acid composition of the oil of the ripe aril are arachidic acid (4.9%), gondoic acid (7.76%), oleic acid (31.76%), palmitic acid (49.20%), palmitoleic acid (1.28%), and stearic acid (5.00%); while arachidic acid (8,58%), behenic acid (36.28%), oleic acid (8.75%), palmitic acid (36.05%), and stearic acid (10.34%) are the fatty acids present in the unripe aril oil. This study concludes that ackee oils may find usage as industrial oil. The results confirmed ackee fruit to be a moderately oily fruit that can be exploited, with proper refining, to produce edible oil, soap, cosmetics, and the other industrial products.