Abstract:
Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) has excellent investment potential and is becoming more
and more popular among the community. The present investigation deals with 18
treatments for coconut milk to find out the combination effect of extraction process
for maximum yield of virgin coconut oil (VCO) from coconut milk extracted from
coconut meat. Optimization of the process parameters including pH (4 and 6), cellulase
enzyme concentration (0.1%, 0.2%) and Lactobacillus bacteria culture (5%, 10%) was
analysed using factorial method. Optimum treatments were selected and quality characteristics
of VCO were compared with the SLS, APCC and CODEX standards. Best
conditions were determined in treatment 11 (pH 6, enzyme 0.1% w/v, bacteria culture
0%) and treatment 12 (pH 6, enzyme 0.2% w/v, bacteria culture 0%), both produced a
higher yield of VCO (17.34%, 16.25%). There was no significant effect among the above
mentioned three factors (p > 0.05). The results indicated that; pH being the most
significant factor while enzyme concentration was the second most important factor
that significantly influences VCO yield. Isolated bacteria culture (Lactobacillus strain)
has no effect (p > 0.05) on the VCO yield. According to the ANOVA test, there was
no significant difference of FFA%, Lovibond color value, and refractive index and delta
k values among VCO obtained from 18 treatments while moisture content is having an
effect (p < 0.05) on the interaction of pH and bacteria culture. Quality parameters of
VCO from treatment 11 and 12 such as moisture content (0.27% and 0.23%), FFA%
(0.2%, 0.25%), refractive index (1.447, 1.447), Lovibond color value (0.9, 0.3), delta k
value (-0.116, -0.116), phenol content (1.632,0.98 mg GAE/g oil), radical scavenging
activity (35.95%, 29.4%) and fatty acid profile (Lauric acid%) (50.004%, 50.155%) are
within the SLS standards at the same time compatible with previous research findings.
