Physicochemical characterization of monoacylglycerols from sunflower oil

Monoacylglycerols (MAG) are compounds widely used in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, as emulsifiers. Usually, MAG's are obtained by chemical glycerolysis between oil (triacyglycerols) and glycerol to form a mixture of glycerides. Sunflower oil (Helianthus annuus) is rich in unsaturated fatty acids (C18:2 omega 6) considered essential to human health. So, MAG's from this oil are very interesting and need to be more studied. The aim of this work is to characterize physical-chemically the sunflower oil and the MAG obtained from it. Both samples were analyzed by: fatty acid composition, iodine index, saponification number, free fatty acids, moisture content, peroxide index, acylglycerols content, determination of mass per unit volume (liter weight) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). According to the results, the chemical glycerolysis produces a mixture with great levels of MAG (approximately 50%) and no change in quality. (c) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of 11th International Congress on Engineering and Food (ICEF 11) Executive Committee.