Ucuhuba seed oil
Ucuhuba seed oil is the oil extracted from the seed of Virola surinamensis (ucuhuba). The ucuhuba tree is found in Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Its seeds provide oil rich in myristic acid. The ucuhuba oil contains 13% lauric acid, 69% myristic acid, 7% palmitic acid and traces of oleic acid and linoleic acid.[1] Myristic and lauric acids comprised 91.3 mole % of the total fatty acids. Although additional saturated fatty acids were found (decanoic acid, palmitic acid, and stearic acid), they occurred only as minor components. Small amounts of several unsaturated fatty acids were found including 2.4% oleic acid and 0.4% linoleic acid.[2]
Ucuhuba butter
Composition of fatty acids of ucuhuba butter:
Lauric acid | % Weight | 16.0 – 20.0 |
Myristic acid | % Weight | 72.0 – 76.0 |
Palmitic acid | % Weight | 7.0 – 9.0 |
Saturated | % | 100 |
Unsaturated | % | 0 |
References
- Gunstone, F.D et al. (2007). The Lipid Handbook with CD-ROM, Boca Raton: CRC Press. ISBN 0-8493-9688-3, p. 86
- Culp, T. W.; Harlow, R. D.; Litchfield, Carter; Reiser, Raymond (1965). "Analysis of triglycerides by consecutive chromatographic techniques. II. Ucuhuba kernel fat". Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society. 42 (11): 974–978. doi:10.1007/BF02632458.