Babassu butter

The most widely distributed naturally occurring saturated FAs are lauric (C14 0), palmitic (C16 0), and stearic (C18 0) acids. The richest common sources of lauric acid are coconut oil, palm kernel oil, and babassu butter, which contain at least 40% of this acid. Palmitic acid is a major component of palm oil (45-50%) and lard and tallow (25-30%) (Tables 6.1 and 6.2). Stearic acid can be manufactured by hydrogenation of FAs. 

Fig. 1. Trends in production of major fats and oils—world basis. (Data from Table I.) Animal fats (butter, lard, tallow, and greases) palm oils (coconut, palm kernel, palm, babassu) industrial oils (linseed, castor, oiticica, tung, olive residue).

Laurie (12 0) and myristic acid (14 0) occur extensively in seed fats of the Lauraceae and Myris-ticeae respectively, a fact which is reflected in the trivial names of these acids. Laurie acid, for example, is the dominant acid in cinnamon oil (80-90%), Babassu fat (40-55%, Section 3.3.2), coconut oil (41-56%, Section 3.3.8), and palmkernel oil (41-55%, Section 3.3.25). Myristic acid occurs in nutmeg butter (60-70%) and Ucuhuba oil (—70%, Section 3.3.35) and at lower levels in coconut (15-18%) and palmkernel oil (14-20%). 

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