The minor components in crude palm oil are carotenoids, tocopherols, sterols, phosphatides, triterphenic and aliphatic alcohols. Though these minor components represent less than 1% of palm oil composition, they play a significant role in the stability and refinability of the oil, in addition to increasing its nutritive value.
Crude palm oil
• Carotenoids
Crude palm oil contains 500-700 ppm carotenoids, mainly as alpha- and beta-carotenes, the precursors of Vitamin A. Carotenoids are usually thermally destroyed during the deodorization stage of the refining process. Their presence however, offers some oxidative protection to the oil by themselves being oxidised first prior to the triglycerides.
• Tocopherols/Tocotrienols
Crude palm oil contains 600-1000 ppm tocopherols and tocotrienols. These levels are slightly lower in refined palm oil. The major forms of tocopherols and tocotrienols present in palm oil are alpha-tocopherol and gamma-tocotrienols. Tocopherols and tocotrienols are antioxidants and provide some natural oxidative protection to the oil.
• Sterols
The sterols in crude palm oil are in the form of sitosterol (218-370ppm), campesterol (90-151 ppm), stigmasterol (44-66 ppm), cholesterol (7-13 ppm) and others (2-18 ppm). Upon refining, their levels are reduced to 68-114 ppm, 26-30 ppm, 12-23 ppm and 2 ppm respectively. It must be emphasised that the cholesterol levels in both crude and refined palm oil are lower than levels in most vegetable oils.
• Phospholipids and Triterpene Alcohols
These components are present in extremely minute amounts in crude palm oil. The main forms of phospholipids are phosph- a tidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylglycerol. The triterpene alcohols are present in the form of cycloartanol, beta-Amyrin, cycloartenol and 2,4-Methylene cycloartanol.
