Enzymatic directed interesterification of palm oil for production of highly unsaturated palm fraction

Palm oil (PO) is a balanced oil with equal parts of unsaturated fatty acids (USAFA) mainly oleic acid (monounsaturated fatty acid, MUFA) and saturated fatty acids (SAFA) mainly palmitic acid. USAFA which include polyunsaturated fatty acids and MUFA are classified as good fat that can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. The ultimate objective of this study was to produce a highly unsaturated palm fraction by enzymatic directed interesterification (EDIE) of PO and fractionation of the interesterified PO (EDIE PO). EDIE is a process whereby randomization of fatty acids on the triacylglycerol (TAG) molecules of oil takes place at a temperature lower than the melting temperature of its highest melting TAGs, normally the trisaturated (S3) TAGs. The EDIE of oil will eventually result in a structured fat with a high concentration of triunsaturated (U3) and S3 TAGs. Since the S3 TAGs were formed simultaneously with the U3 TAGs, the second objective of this project was to obtain a highly saturated palm fraction. The first part of the study focused on the optimization of the EDIE processing parameters namely enzyme load, reaction temperature and reaction time using Response Surface Methodology in order to obtain EDIE PO having the highest U3 TAGs concentration, with a tolerable if not the lowest amount of by-products (free FAs, monoacylglycerol, and diacylglycerol). The optimum reaction parameters were: enzyme load of 10%, reaction temperature of 30 °C and reaction time of 18 hours. EDIE of PO was able to significantly (p