Coconut polymorphism

Timms (21) has heat of fusion to 17.7-22.3 kcal/kg for milkfat, 24-31 kcal/kg for fully hardened milkfat, 26-29 kcal/kg for cocoa butter in the p polymorph, 22.6 kcal/kg for refined, bleached, and deodorized (RBD) palm oil, 29.7 kcal/kg for RBD palm kernel oil, 26.0 kcal/kg for RBD coconut oil, 31.6 kcal/kg for fully hardened palm kernel oil, and 31.2 kcal/kg for fully hardened coconut oil. The heat of fusion is an empirical physical property dependent on the thermal history or tempering of the oil. 

Modified triacylglycerols can occur in different polymorphic forms, and these influence the melting properties of the fat, the softening point, the solids content, etc. Analysis of such properties is commonly performed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). DSC has been used to determine the physical properties of sTAG formed from interesterification products of triolein and tristearin (Seriburi and Akoh, 1998) and from acidolysis reactions between stearic acid and coconut oil (Rao et al., 2001). 

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