Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #63595
Title: ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF WAX ESTERS IN MEADOWFOAM OIL

Author
item Isbell, Terry
item Carlson, Kenneth
item Abbott Dr, Thomas
item Phillips, Bliss
item Erhan, Selim
item Kleiman, Robert

Submitted to: Journal Of Industrial Crops And Products
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/2/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Meadowfoam is a developing new oilseed crop grown in the Pacific Northwestern United States. This winter annual is an economical and environmental alternative to the grass seed industry currently located in this region. The oil is currently being used in the cosmetic industry where there are stringent demands placed on oil quality. Recent oil production from meadowfoam failed to meet these demands due to the formation of a suspended particulate matter in the oil giving it a cloudy appearance. We isolated and characterized the particulate matter from the oil. This material was found to be a wax. Based on our identification of this particulate matter the origin of the oil clarity problem was identified and modifications for future oil processing can be made.

Technical Abstract: Particulate matter found in refined meadowfoam oil samples was isolated first by centrifugation and then crystallization from acetone. The white crystalline solid had a melting point of 77-78 C and was characterized as a mixture of wax esters by 1HNMR, 13C NMR and IR. GC analysis of the wax esters indicated a gaussian distribution of esters from C44-C56, including odd chain esters. Base hydrolysis of the wax ester and GC analysis of the fatty methyl esters and fatty alcohols indicated a mixture of saturated methyl esters from C16 to C32, including small amounts of the odd chain methyl esters C21-C29 with the predominate methyl ester being C24. The alcohol portion of the wax esters contained saturated chain lengths of C20-C30, including odd chains of C21-C29. The main alcohol component was the saturated C24 alkanol. GC-MS confirmed the GC assignments. A normal phase HPLC technique was developed to determine the amount of wax ester (0.06% to 0.12%) in various refined meadowfoam oil samples.