Production and characterization of extraction oil from natural spices : a comparison study with functional group content of Zea May and Elaeis Guineensis jacq. oil

Research in finding more sources for specialty oils have been actively conducted nowadays. In this research four spices selected as a raw materials which is Pimpinella Anisum, Sesamum indicum, Syzygium aromaticum, and Cuminum cyminum. This spices was selected because of it is easily find in our local market. This research is to analyze the specialty oil produces and also the functional group in each of the sample. This analysis was conducted in Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) laboratory using the Fourier Transform Infrared Transmitter (FTIR) unit. Most important step in this research is the analysis and comparison with the commodity oil such as palm oil and maize oil. This is because from the comparison the new sources of oil can be recognize and this oil will be the alternative to the commodity oil. Based on the result of this research, sesamum indicum produces the highest percentage of specialty oil (46.06%) (average), compare to other spices and the lowest percentage is cuminuim cyminum (10.78%) (average). Comparisons for the functional group indicate that sesamum indicum specialty oil gives nearly similar IR spectrum with the palm oil and maize oil. The market value for this specialty oil is increasing in many part of the world as for the increasing in its application, the development of this specialty oil must be considered because of its potential to be commercialized