ANALYSIS OF PALM OIL AS OIL ADULTERANT IN OLIVE AND PUMPKIN SEED OILS IN TERNARY MIXTURE SYSTEMS USING FTIR SPECTROSCOPY AND CHEMOMETRICS

Objective: The study was designed to develop Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy in conjunction with chemometrics techniques of multivariate calibration and discriminant analysis (DA) for analysis of palm oil in a ternary mixture with EVOO and PSO. Methods: FTIR spectra of pure palm oil (PO), extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), pumpkin seed oil (PSO) and its ternary mixtures randomly prepared were scanned using FTIR spectrophotometer at wavenumbers of 4000-650 cm-1 corresponding to mid-infrared region, with resolution of 8 cm-1 and 32 scanning using sampling technique of attenuated total reflectance (ATR). Two calibrations in multivariate models, namely principle component (PCR) and partial least square (PLS) regressions were used to facilitate quantification of PO. Results: The PLS using first derivative FTIR–ATR spectra at 3100-2750 combined with 1500-663 cm-1 showed the best prediction models for quantification of PO in ternary mixtures with EVOO and PSO. Using this condition, correlation coefficient (R) values for the relationship between actual values and FTIR predicted values of 0.9967 and 0.9906 were achieved in calibration and validation models, respectively. The errors in calibration and prediction models, expressed by RMSEC and RMSEP, were low, i.e. 0.0080% and 0.0152%, respectively. DA using absorbance values at the same wavenumbers also offered the optimum discrimination model for discrimination between PO and PO mixed with EVOO and PSO in ternary mixtures. Conclusion: This result concluded that FTIR spectra in conjunction with DA (for classification) and PLS (for quantification) is fast and accurate tools during the analysis of PO as oil adulterant in EVOO and PSO