Properties of residual palm pressed fibre oil

Residual fibre oil was recovered from palm pressed fibre by using a solvent (hexane). the oil was analysed for its physical and chemical properties. the macro-nutrient and element contents of the pressed fibre were also analysed. the residualfibre oil contained high amounts of phosphorus (144 ppm),vitamin e (1153 ppm) and carotenes (1877 ppm). the compositional content of vitamin e present was 54.0% α-tocopherol,19.2% α-tocotrienol,16.7% γ-tocotrienol and 10.1% δ-tocotrienol. the major fatty acids of the residual fibre oil zvere palmitic and oleic acid at 31.9% and 24.8%,respectively. the oil also contained a high amount of lauric acid (22.0%) which is the major fatty acid in palm kernel oil. density of the residualfibre oil as afunction of temperature was measured at temperatures rangingfrom 40% to 75%. density exhibited a linear relationship with temperature. viscosity of the residual fibre oil was shown to decrease with an increase in temperature. the formation of needle-shaped crystals was observed zvhen the residual oil zvas cooled down from 36% to 34%. there were no significant changes in the macro-nutrient and element contents of the palm pressed fibre before and after oil extraction with hexane.