Significance saponification value

Watermelon seed oil was prepared and evaluated for its physicochemical properties (22, 23). The seed oil consisted of 59.6% linoleic acid (18 2n-6) and 78.4% total unsaturated fatty acids (Table 4). The predominant fatty acid in the oil was linoleic acid, which was followed by oleic, palmitic, and stearic acids. Linolenic, palmitoleic, and myristic acids were minor constituents. The refractive index, acid value, peroxide value, and free fatty acids of watermelon seed oil were determined to be 1.4696 (25°C), 2.82 (mg KOH/g oil), 3.40 (mequiv oxygen/kg oil), and 1.41 (% as oleic acid), respectively. The saponification value of watermelon seed oil was 201 (mg KOH/g oil), and its iodine value was 115 (g iodine/100-g oil), which was significantly higher than pumpkin at 109 (g iodine/lOO-g oil) (22, 23). 

Coconut oil has a unique fatty acid composition of short and medium chain fatty acids as indicated in Table 3. Due to the presence of this unique composition of shorter and medium chain fatty acids, coconut oil has a higher saponification value and this value in coconut oil is the highest among almost all other edible oils. Saponification value also does not change significantly with the method of extraction of coconut oil. However, slightly high saponification values may be observed for oils with other non-lipid substances, which may react with potassium hydroxide. 

According to this study, acid value, peroxide value and saponification value of the two types of oils are significantly different and the iodine values showed no signifieant differenee. Fatty acid compositions of the two types of oils were not significantly different enough to cause any nutritional changes. 

In the analysis of foods that contain significant amounts of both naturally occurring toco-pherols and supplemental a-tocopheryl acetate, saponification, by hydrolyzing the esterified vitamin E, allows the total a-tocopherol content to be measured as a single peak by HPLC. It should be noted that if totally synthetic all-rac-a-tocopheryl acetate is the supplemental form used, its hydrolysis product, all-rac-a-tocopherol, is less biologically active than is naturally occurring RRR-a-tocopherol, making it impossible to calculate a potency value for the total vitamin E. This problem does not arise if the supplement used is / / / -a-tocopheryl acetate. 

Many of the tests described involve physical properties such as refractive index, viscosity or melting point of the fat, of the fatty acids or of the lead salts of the fatty acids. However, there were also many chemical tests such as Reichert, Polenske, iodine, saponification and acetyl values. These all gave information as to the composition of the fat, some information as to fatty acid composition, others as to other non-glyceride components of the fat. Thus the iodine value is a measure of unsaturated fatty acids in the fat, now obtainable in more detail from a fatty acid profile. Similarly the Reichert value is a measure of volatile fatty acids soluble in water. For most purposes this means butyric acid, and so the modem equivalent is the determination of butyric acid in the oil. The modem method for milk-fat analysis is thus carrying out the analysis in a similar way to the Reichert determination, but uses a technique that is less dependent on the exact conditions of the analysis and is thus less likely to be subject to operator error. The Reichert value could be useful, in theory, even if milk fat was not present. Lewkowitsch notes that some other oils do give high values. Porpoise jaw oil has a value almost twice that of milk fat, while some other oils also have significant values. It is unlikely that one would have come across much porpoise jaw oil even in 1904, and even less likely today. 

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