Acharacterization, Antioxidant Properties And Authentication Of Virgin Coconut Oil

A study on chemical properties and authentication of virgin coconut oil (VCO) was conducted. Chemical properties showed that commercial VCO had iodine value of 4.47 to 8.55, peroxide value of 0.21 to 0.57 meq oxygen/kg, free fatty acid of 0.15 to 0.25, saponification value of 250.07 to 260.67 mg KOH/g oil and anisidine value of 0.16 to 0.49. Lauric acid was the predominant fatty acid which ranged from 46.64 to 48.03%. Major triacylglycerol (TAG) were LaLaLa, LaLaM, CLaLa, LaMM and CCLa (La:lauric; C:capric; M:Myristic) which accounted for more than 80% TAG of the oil. Total phenolic content ranged from 7.78 to 29.18 mg GAE/g oil. VCO samples exhibited higher antioxidant activity (49.79 to 79.87%) compared to refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) coconut oil (49.58%). Comparison between different processing methods of VCO showed that VCO produced by fermentation method possessed the strongest scavenging effect on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) with the amount of oil necessary to decrease the initial DPPH radical concentration by 50% (EC50) value of 1.24 mg/mL. VCO produced by fermentation method also exhibited the highest antioxidant activity of 71% while the highest reducing power of VCO produced by chilling method was 1.02 at 10 mg/mL. The results revealed that VCO produced by both fermentation and chilling method had higher antioxidant potency than RBD coconut oil. Total phenolic content was strongly correlated with radical scavenging capacity (r = 0.91) and reducing power (r = 0.96) while no correlation was observed for β-carotene bleaching test. Some phenolic acids found in VCOs were protocatechuic, vanillic acid, caffeic acid, syringic acid, coumaric acid and ferulic acid. Rapid methods were developed to detect adulteration in VCO. First, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to detect adulteration of VCO with palm kernel olein. The results showed that FTIR was capable of detecting adulteration down to 1% adulteration level. Discriminant analysis using 10 principal components was able to classify pure and adulterated samples on the basis of their spectra. A partial least square (PLS) calibration demonstrated a good linear regression (R2) of 0.9875 of actual value against FTIR predicted concentration of palm kernel olein. Discriminant analysis was also capable to distinguish between VCO and other vegetable oils.Another rapid method, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was also used to determine adulteration of VCO with selected vegetable oils, namely soybean oil (SBO) from linolenic acid group, sunflower oil (SFO) from oleic-linoleic acid group and palm kernel oil (PKO) from lauric acid group. The heating curves of SBO and SFO adulterated samples demonstrated adulteration peaks appearing at the lower temperature region starting at 10% adulteration level. Regression analysis using stepwise multiple linear regressions (SMLR) was used to predict the percent of adulterant with R2 of 0.9390 for SFO and 0.9490 for SBO. No adulteration peak was observed for PKO adulterated oils but a good relationship between the main exothermic peak height of PKO and percentage of adulteration was established with R2 of 0.9454. Finally, electronic nose with surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor was used to detect adulteration in VCO with palm kernel olein. Qualitative analysis was made possible using VaporPrintTM, which translated the sensor’s response into visualized two dimensional image. Adulteration peaks were identified from chromatogram profile and the best relationship (R2 = 0.9093) was obtained between adulterant peak F and the percentage of palm kernel olein added. Pearson correlation (r) of 0.92 was obtained between adulterant peak F and iodine value while correlation (r) of 0.89 was obtained between peroxide value and adulterant peak F. Principal component analysis (PCA) provided good separation of samples with 74% of the variation accounted for principal component 1 and 17% accounted for principal component 2. Excellent result was obtained in the differentiation of pure and adulterated samples down to 1% detection limit. In conclusion, this study provides references on chemical properties as well as presented the antioxidative potential of VCO. New methods were also developed for detection of adulteration of VCO with other oils using rapid analytical techniques

Virgin coconut oil: emerging functional food oil

Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is growing in popularity as functional food oil and the public awareness of it is increasing. It is expected that VCO will experience a dramatic growth in the market. The introduction of VCO has open up new research that basically reveals new things besides what has already been known on commercial coconut oil. This paper mainly discusses on some of the findings associated with VCO up to date. Physicochemical properties, antioxidant activity, clinical and authentication studies of VCO were some of the topics addressed in this review

Chemical properties of virgin coconut oil.

A study on the commercial virgin coconut oil (VCO) available in the Malaysian and Indonesian market was conducted. The paper reported the chemical characteristics and fatty acid composition of VCO. There was no significant difference in lauric acid content (46.64–48.03%) among VCO samples. The major triacylglycerols obtained for the oils were LaLaLa, LaLaM, CLaLa, LaMM and CCLa (La, lauric; C, capric; M, myristic). Iodine value ranged from 4.47 to 8.55, indicative of only few unsaturated bond presence. Saponification value ranged from 250.07 to 260.67 mg KOH/g oil. The low peroxide value (0.21–0.57 mequiv oxygen/kg) signified its high oxidative stability, while anisidine value ranged from 0.16 to 0.19. Free fatty acid content of 0.15–0.25 was fairly low, showing that VCO samples were of good quality. All chemical compositions were within the limit of Codex standard for edible coconut oil. Total phenolic contents of VCO samples (7.78–29.18 mg GAE/100 g oil) were significantly higher than refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) coconut oil (6.14 mg GAE/100 g oil). These results suggest that VCO is as good as RBD coconut oil in chemical properties with the added benefit of being higher in phenolic content

Sweet taste preference status and its association with preference for the four basic taste modalities of various food

Sweetness preference is a complex sensation involving multidisciplinary fields and it has been studied extensively. However, there is still limited information on how the status of the sweet preference of individuals influences their preference for other taste modalities. Thus, this study was conducted to observe the difference in the preference for various types of foods based on the four taste modalities, with sweet taste preference (STP) status. This cross-sectional study involved 156 university students in Kelantan, Malaysia. The preference test of tea drink sweetness was determined using the hedonic test. Subjects were grouped into low, medium, and high STP according to their STP level. The preference for the taste modalities of different food groups was determined by using a questionnaire. The results indicated that the majority of subjects were in the medium STP group. Foods categorized under the sweet taste group were mostly correlated with the STP status, followed by salty and sour foods. There was no correlation (p>0.05) between STP status and bitter foods. This result agrees with the principal component analysis (PCA). Two factors were extracted from PCA, in which the first factor explained 56.41% and the second factor explained 20.45% of the variance. Sweetness is related to foods that are categorized under salty and sour tastes, but not related to bitter tastes. This study shows that sweetness preference status is associated with preference for two other basic tastes. The high STP subject not only prefers sweet foods but also favors foods from salty and sour groups

Influence of Avocado Purée as a Fat Replacer on Nutritional, Fatty Acid, and Organoleptic Properties of Low-Fat Muffins

Objective: The feasibility of developing reduced-fat muffins with avocado is investigated by preparing muffins with 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% avocado pur�ee as a fat (butter) replacer. Methodology: The resulting products were compared to the control muffin, which was made with 100% butter. Muffins were analyzed for nutritional content, fatty acid profiles, and sensory acceptability. Result: Muffins incorporated with avocado pur�ee revealed a significant increase (p < 0.05) with respect to moisture, ash, and carbohydrate in comparison with the control sample. However, no significant changes (p > 0.05) were detected in all muffin formulations for protein and dietary fiber content. Both fat content and caloric value of muffins incorporated with avocado pur�ee were significantly decreased (p < 0.05). The fatty acid profile showed that there was an increment in the monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) content by 16.51% at full-fat substitution. The sensory evaluation test demonstrated that muffins had acceptability at up to 50% substitution. Fat substitution at higher than 50% lead to undesirable flavor and aftertaste, which was significant (p < 0.05) to the panelists. Conclusion: The findings indicated the feasibility of avocado pur�ee in fat-reduced muffin preparation with an optimal level of 50% avocado pur�ee substitution

Health care planning in selected developing countries

Background: Health planning in developing countries differs from developed countries. They have more limited resources for health development. Therefore efficient health planning and resource allocation is critical to ensure optimal health outcome of the nation. Due to the nature of heterogeneity among the developing countries, the health approach may differ contextually among developing countries. This paper aims to compare practices of health planning development among selected developing countries. Materials and Methods: This review encompasses relevant scientific articles and most recent official country report related to health planning. Searches only include articles or reports published in English. Based on the six WHO regions. Selection of countries based on availability of manuscript (article and report) fulfilling the criteria. The countries selected were Bangladesh, Belize, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia and Turkey. Result: A five or ten years of strategic plan for health is the most practiced among the studied developing country. It usually involves multi-sectorial within the country and international agencies and consultants. The advancement of technology helps in improving the administrative data utilisation to allow informed-decision making, deeper root cause analysis and timely monitoring and evaluation. Other than that, engagement with various stakeholders from different level – at all phase of plan development, together with political will is the key factor of the successful implementation. Despite that, these developing countries often suffer from limited resources in term of workforce, financing and technical expertise. Conclusion: Although the health planning process is similar across countries studies, where the cycles start with situational analysis, prioritisation, options appraisal, implementation, monitoring and lastly evaluation. Each country may have slightly different approaches, depending on their context, resources and technology capacity

Regiospecific analysis of Mono and Diglycerides in Glycerolysis products by GC x GC TOF-MS.

Comprehensive bidimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-TOF-MS) was used for the characterization of regiospecific mono- and diglycerides (MG-DG) content in the glycerolysis products derived from five different lipids included lard (LA), sun flower seed oil (SF), corn oil (CO), butter (BU), and palm oil (PA). The combination of fast and high temperature non-orthogonal column set namely DB17ht (6 m × 0.10 mm × 0.10 μm) as the primary column and SLB-5 ms (60 cm × 0.10 mm × 0.10 μm) as the secondary column was applied in this work. System configuration involved high oven ramp temperature to obtain precise mass spectral identification and highest effluent’s resolution. 3-Monopalmitoyl-sn-glycerol (MG 3-C16) was the highest concentration in LA, BU and PA while monostearoyl-sn-glycerol (MG C18) in CO and 1,3-dilinoleol-rac-glycerol (DG C18:2c) in SF. Principal component analysis accounted 82% of variance using combination of PC1 and PC2. The presence of monostearoyl-sn-glycerol (MG C18), 3-Monopalmitoyl-sn-glycerol (MG 3-C16), 1,3-dilinoleol-rac-glycerol (DG C18:2c), 1,3-dipalmitoyl-glycerol (DG 1,3-C16), and 1,3-dielaidin (DG C18:1t) caused differentiation of the samples tested

Application of FTIR spectroscopy for the determination of virgin coconut oil in binary mixtures with olive oil and palm oil.

Rapid Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy combined with attenuated total reflectance (ATR) was applied for quantitative analysis of virgin coconut oil (VCO) in binary mixtures with olive oil (OO) and palm oil (PO). The spectral bands correlated with VCO, OO, PO; blends of VCO and OO; VCO and PO were scanned, interpreted, and identified. Two multivariate calibration methods, partial least square (PLS) and principal component regression (PCR), were used to construct the calibration models that correlate between actual and FTIR-predicted values of VCO contents in the mixtures at the FTIR spectral frequencies of 1,120–1,105 and 965–960 cm−1. The calibration models obtained were cross validated using the “leave one out” method. PLS at these frequencies showed the best calibration model, in terms of the highest coefficient of determination (R 2) and the lowest of root mean standard error of calibration (RMSEC) with R 2 = 0.9992 and RMSEC = 0.756, respectively, for VCO in mixture with OO. Meanwhile, the R 2 and RMSEC values obtained for VCO in mixture with PO were 0.9996 and 0.494, respectively. In general, FTIR spectroscopy serves as a suitable technique for determination of VCO in mixture with the other oils

Nutritional Assessment among Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patient in Southeast Asian Countries: A Scoping Review

This scoping review aims to determine the available nutritional assessments for people with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) in Southeast Asian countries. The methodology used for this research was based on the PRISMA-ScR standards. An extensive electronic search was carried out for papers published between 2012 and 2022 that pertained to studies conducted in Southeast Asian countries and were written in English. The eligibility criteria for this review were T2DM patients aged 20 years and older. The search was carried out using PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases. Hence, out of 5,445, fourteen articles met the eligibility requirements of the analysis. According to the findings, twelve studies used anthropometry measurements and biochemical tests, followed by eight studies using clinical assessments and four studies using dietary assessments. The research utilized various nutritional assessment methods such as weight, height, Body Mass Index (BMI), waist and hip circumference, body fat percentage, Fasting Blood Glucose (FBG), Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1c), lipid profiles, Blood Pressure (BP), 3-day and 24-hour dietary recall. This review examined how the available nutritional assessments for T2DM are frequently carried out in Southeast Asian countries. The review discovered that weight, height, BMI, waist and hip circumference, FBG, HbA1c, BP, and 3-day dietary recall are the most commonly reported nutritional assessment methods

Antioxidant capacity and phenolic acids of virgin coconut oil.

The antioxidant properties of virgin coconut oil produced through chilling and fermentation were investigated and compared with refined, bleached and deodorized coconut oil. Virgin coconut oil showed better antioxidant capacity than refined, bleached and deodorized coconut oil. The virgin coconut oil produced through the fermentation method had the strongest scavenging effect on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl and the highest antioxidant activity based on the β-carotene-linoleate bleaching method. However, virgin coconut oil obtained through the chilling method had the highest reducing power. The major phenolic acids detected were ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid. Very high correlations were found between the total phenolic content and scavenging activity (r = 0.91), and between the total phenolic content and reducing power (r = 0.96). There was also a high correlation between total phenolic acids and β-carotene bleaching activity. The study indicated that the contribution of antioxidant capacity in virgin coconut oil could be due to phenolic compounds