Thermal and physical properties of crude palm oil with higher oleic content

Interspecific hybridization of oil palms (E. guineensis × E. oleifera) was initially exploited to provide disease resistance and, consequently, increased oleic acid content. Besides the growing importance of this cultivar to the market, there is little information about this oil’s properties. In this context, this study aimed to determine a comprehensive physicochemical and thermal characterization of hybrid palm oil (HOPO) compared with the better-known African palm oil (APO). Differences in the distribution of fatty acids, carotenoids, and tocols were observed. Minor differences in density and viscosity were found between the oils, with no relevance for the materials’ processing design. Nevertheless, HOPO showed unique crystallization behavior, which potentially can affect industrial operations, such as fractionation. HOPO did not present the two thermal characteristic regions of APO, attributed to olein and stearin fractions. The HOPO demonstrated a decrease in the melting point of more than 3 °C in relation to APO, and a reduction in the crystallization point of more than 6 °C. Furthermore, besides the higher content of unsaturated fatty acids, HOPO was more stable than APO due to a higher antioxidant content. These results could be useful to establish operation conditions for processes using palm oil from hybrid oil palm

Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil: setting the baseline knowledge on the animal diversity in Brazil

The limited temporal completeness and taxonomic accuracy of species lists, made available in a traditional manner in scientific publications, has always represented a problem. These lists are invariably limited to a few taxonomic groups and do not represent up-to-date knowledge of all species and classifications. In this context, the Brazilian megadiverse fauna is no exception, and the Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil (CTFB) (http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/), made public in 2015, represents a database on biodiversity anchored on a list of valid and expertly recognized scientific names of animals in Brazil. The CTFB is updated in near real time by a team of more than 800 specialists. By January 1, 2024, the CTFB compiled 133,691 nominal species, with 125,138 that were considered valid. Most of the valid species were arthropods (82.3%, with more than 102,000 species) and chordates (7.69%, with over 11,000 species). These taxa were followed by a cluster composed of Mollusca (3,567 species), Platyhelminthes (2,292 species), Annelida (1,833 species), and Nematoda (1,447 species). All remaining groups had less than 1,000 species reported in Brazil, with Cnidaria (831 species), Porifera (628 species), Rotifera (606 species), and Bryozoa (520 species) representing those with more than 500 species. Analysis of the CTFB database can facilitate and direct efforts towards the discovery of new species in Brazil, but it is also fundamental in providing the best available list of valid nominal species to users, including those in science, health, conservation efforts, and any initiative involving animals. The importance of the CTFB is evidenced by the elevated number of citations in the scientific literature in diverse areas of biology, law, anthropology, education, forensic science, and veterinary science, among others

Phospholipase cocktail : a new degumming technique for crude soybean oil

Enzymatic degumming (EDG) is an emerging alternative process for decreasing the phosphorus content, increasing the oil yield, and preserving the oil quality. Purifine (R) 3G is a cocktail of phospholipases composed of phospholipase A2 (PLA2), phospholipase C (PLC), and phosphatidylinositol phospholipase C (PI-PLC). In this study, Purifine (R) 3G was applied to crude soybean oil, and the optimum degumming conditions (enzyme con-centration, temperature, and water dosage) were determined using a central composite rotatable design (CCRD). The contents of diacylglycerols (DAGs) and free fatty acids (FFAs) in the studied system considerably increased at temperatures below 64 C and enzyme concentrations above 100 mg/kg, while the phosphorus content decreased with increasing water amount and enzyme concentration. In particular, EDG with 200 mg/kg of Purifine (R) 3G conducted for 120 min at a temperature of 60 C and water concentration of 3% (w/w) lowered the residual phosphorus content to 8.9 mg/kg and increased the FFA and DAG concentrations by 0.17% and 0.72%, respectively. Meanwhile, EDG retained the tocopherol content in crude soybean oil, maintaining its quality. Hence, Purifine (R) 3G increases the neutral oil yield (FFA and DAG), decreases the phosphorus content, and preserves the oil quality, which make it a commercially viable degumming agent