Stearine, Cotton-seed

In this note the use of hydrogen in the fat hardening industry has been described with particular reference to the conversion of the unsaturated oleic and linoleic fatty acids into stearic acid However, what has been said in regard to diis matter is equally applicable to the conversion of olein and linolein into stearin, cotton-seed and most fish oils being quite easily converted into solid fats. 

Cocoa butter substitutes and equivalents differ greatly with respect to their method of manufacture, source of fats, and functionaHty they are produced by several physical and chemical processes (17,18). Cocoa butter substitutes are produced from lauric acid fats such as coconut, palm, and palm kernel oils by fractionation and hydrogenation from domestic fats such as soy, com, and cotton seed oils by selective hydrogenation or from palm kernel stearines by fractionation. Cocoa butter equivalents can be produced from palm kernel oil and other specialty fats such as shea and ilHpe by fractional crystallization from glycerol and selected fatty acids by direct chemical synthesis or from edible beef tallow by acetone crystallization. 

The invention of butter substitutes, now popularised by prevailing conditions and the need for the exercise of economy, is due to the chemist. These substances are commonly made by mixing intimately a solid animal fat, such as stearin, with some vegetable oil, such as cotton seed or cocoanut oil, and milk. The use of solid animal oil for this purpose absorbs some of the raw material formerly available to the soap maker, but the deficiency has been made good by the conversion of the plentiful supply of vegetable oils, such as olive oil, into solid fats by hydrogenation in the presence of finely divided nickel, to which we referred in dealing with that metal. 

Oleomargarine is a product made in imitation of butter, which it resembles very closely in color, taste, odor, and general appearance. Under the original patent, it is made from beef-fat, which is hashed, steamed, and subjected to pressure at a carefully regulated temperature. Under this treatment it is separated into two fatty products, one a white solid, stearine, the other a faintly yellow oil, oleo-oil. This oil is then mixed with milk, the mixture colored and churned. The subsequent treatment of the product is the same as that of butter. Butterine, suine, etc., are products made, by modifications of the above process, from beef or mutton tallow, lard, and cotton-seed-oil. 

Tallow Palm Oil Coconut Oil Cotton Seed Oil Linseed Oil Palm Stearin Oil... 

Of the above the most important from a soap-maker s point of view are stearin, palmitin, olein and lanrin, as these predominate in the fats and oils generally used in that industry. The presence of stearin and palmitin, which are solid at the ordinary temperature, gives firmness to a fat the greater the percentage present, the harder the fat and the higher will be the melting point, hence tallows and palm oils are solid, firm fats. Where olein, which is liquid, is the chief constituent, we have softer fats, such as lard, and liquid oils, as almond, olive and cotton-seed. 

Qotton-seed Stearine.—The product obtained by pressing the deposit which separates on chUling refined cotton-seed oil. 

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