ABSTRACT: The kernel oils of five different palm species native
to the Amazon basin and French Guyana were studied. Those
studied were Acrocomia lasiospatha Wall., Astrocaryum vulgare
C. Mart., Bactris gasipaes H.B.K., Elaeis oleifera (Kunth) Cortés,
and Maximiliana maripa Drude. Lauric and myristic acids were
found in all of the oils. Analysis of the unsaponifiable contents,
especially the sterol and triterpene alcohol determinations, re-
vealed the preponderance of sitosterol and the presence of two
triterpene alcohols (cycloartenol and 24-methylenecycloartanol).
Antioxidant (vitamin E) levels were present in small amounts, with
the levels being more similar to olive than to palm oil.
Paper no. J10174 in JAOCS 80, 49–53 (January 2003).
KEY WORDS: Acrocomia lasiospatha, Amazonian palms, As-
trocaryum vulgare, Bactris gasipaes, Elaeis oleifera, fatty acid,
Maximiliana maripa, palm oil, unsaponifiable.
More than 40% of oils consumed worldwide today are palm
(lauric) oils. The two primary palm species exploited are the
Cocos nucifera L. and the Elaeis guineensis N.J. Jacq. Both
the mesocarp and kernels provide edible oils as well as oils
that have industrial applications (e.g., soapmaking, lubricants,
cosmetic creams, and surfactants, among others) (1). In this
study, we have paid particular attention to five palm species
occurring in French Guyana and the Amazonian basin: Acro-
comia lasiospatha Wall, Astrocaryum vulgare C. Mart., Bac-
tris gasipaes Kunth, Elaeis oleifera (Kunth) Cortés, and Max-
imiliana maripa Drude (2,3).
Acrocomia lasiospatha is a 10–15 m high, 30–35 cm di-
ameter, spiny-stemmed palm occurring in the savannah. The
fruits are brownish-yellow and the mesocarp is very mucilagi-
nous. The palm develops fruit between July and December.
Astrocaryum vulgare is a 10–15 m high palm with hard spines
that is very common in open areas, such as fields and pastures
and as secondary vegetation. The fruits are yellow-orange and
drupaceous, and occur between January and August. Bactris
gasipaes is a 10–20 m high, spiny-stemmed palm with green-
yellow or yellow-orange fruits that occur between November
and July. Elaeis oleifera palm is a (prostrate) trunk palm oc-
curring not far from flooded areas. The red-orange drupa-
ceous fruits occur between July and December. The M.
maripa palm, also called inaja in Brazil, grows on dry, sandy
sites and is generally found in open areas and secondary for-
est. It is a large-stemmed palm about 18 m high and 20 cm in
diameter with long leaves and ovoid drupaceous fruits that
are composed of a fibrous outer shell and a viscous mesocarp
pulp. The fruits usually appear between January and June and
may occasionally appear from October to December also. The
FA composition and the unsaponifiable content of these ker-
nel oils have been reported in several works (4–7). In the
present study, these earlier results were confirmed and com-
pleted with determinations of the sterol, triterpene alcohol
(TA), and total tocopherol values.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
Materials. Fruits were harvested during the ripening season
in French Guyana. They were stored at low temperature
(−18°C) to avoid the enzymatic degradation of TG.
Kernel oil extraction. After shelling the pulp, the seed was
ground in a mixer. A 40-g quantity of each sample was placed
in an extraction thimble. The oil extraction was performed in
a Soxhlet apparatus for 2 h using 200 mL hexane as solvent.
The fat content was recovered by evaporation of the solvent
in a rotary evaporator under low pressure. The crude oil ob-
tained was dried and weighed.
Physicochemical properties. Several physicochemical in-
dices of the extracted oils were determined. The following
were evaluated according to the methods listed in the Associ-
ation Française de Normalisation (AFNOR) patents (8):
(i) density (AFNOR NF T 60-214); (ii) refractive index
(AFNOR NF T 60-212); (iii) acid value (AFNOR NF T
60-204); (iv) PV (AFNOR NF T 60-220); and (v) unsaponifi-
able value (AFNOR NF T 60-205).
Determination of FA composition. The FA composition
was determined by analysis of their methyl esters. The methyl
esters of the FA were prepared from the oils by esterification
with methanol in the presence of potash and boron trifluoride
(BF3) according to AFNOR Method NF T 60-233 (8). The
methyl esters were analyzed by gas chromatography using a
Carlo Erba GC 6000 (Vega Series) gas chromatograph fitted
with an FID and a 30 m × 0.32 mm capillary column (DB-5-
MS; J&W Scientific, Folsom, CA), 0.25 µm film thickness.
Helium was used as the carrier gas at a flow rate of 40
kPa/min. The analysis was performed under the following
conditions: oven temperature 80°C for 2 min, with a rise of
15°C/min to 160°C and a rise of 5°C/min to 200°C. The tem-
Copyright © 2003 by AOCS Press 49 JAOCS, Vol. 80, no. 1 (2003)
*To whom correspondence should be addressed.
E-mail: Bbenjelloun@ensct.fr
FA and Unsaponifiable Composition of Five
Amazonian Palm Kernel Oils
Didier Bereaua, Bouchra Benjelloun-Mlayaha,*, Joseph Banoubb, and René Bravoc
aInstitut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Chimiques et Technologiques, Laboratoire
de Catalyse, Chimie Fine et Polymères, 31077 Toulouse Cedex 4, France, bScience, Oceans and Environment, St. John’s,
Newfoundland, A1C5X1, Canada, and cUniversité des Antilles et de la Guyane, Département Scientifique interfacultaire,
Laboratoire COVACHIM (Connaissances et Valorisations des Ressources Végétales), Campus de Schoelcher, 97233 Martinique

perature was maintained at 200°C for 20 min. The detector
temperature was fixed at 220°C, and the injector was main-
tained at room temperature. Quantification was performed
using the internal standard method.
Sterol and TA analysis. Sterols and TA had to be deriva-
tized into silylethers prior to chromatographic analysis
(i) Sterols. The unsaponifiable content, obtained using
AFNOR Method NF T 60-205 (8), was derivatized with the
addition of pyridine (0.5 mL), hexamethyldisilosane (100
µL), and trimethylchlorosilane (40 µL). The sterols were then
centrifuged, and the upper layer was analyzed under the fol-
lowing conditions: The gas chromatograph (Varian CP-3800)
was fitted with a 30 m × 0.25 mm capillary column (ZE-
BRON ZB-5; Phenomenex, Torrance, CA), 0.25 µm film
thickness, and was coupled to a mass spectrometer (Saturn
2000 GC MS/MS). The oven temperature was fixed at 150°C
for 5 min, then raised to 250°C at 15°C/min and held for 20
min. The EI–MS scans were 2–45 min long with a sweep of
100–600 amu (atomic mass units) (with Electronic Impact
Auto). The carrier gas (He) flow rate was 1 mL/min. The Na-
tional Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) library
was used to analyze the mass spectra and to confirm the iden-
tification of compounds. Quantification of the compounds
was carried out using the internal standard method.
(ii) TA. The same protocol was used for the analysis of TA.
Tocopherol and tocotrienol analysis. The unsaponifiable mat-
ter was recovered from 5 g of kernel oil, according to the above
procedure, and was then diluted with 2 mL of hexane and in-
jected onto a Spherisorb® 80 Å column (25 cm, 5 µm thickness;
Waters, Milford, MA). The sample was analyzed using a Waters
486 Tunable Absorbance detector (an excitation wavelength of
292 nm). The pump and autosampler were a PerkinElmer iso-
cratic LC Pump 250, and a rate of 1 mL/min was used. Injection
was performed using a Rheodyne 7725i with a 20-µL loop. The
mobile phase was hexane/2-propanol (99:1, vol/vol).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Mesocarp and kernel oil extraction. The results are reported
in Table 1. Oil yields from the M. maripa species were the
highest (31%); the yields from the other oils ranged from 10
to 17%. All of the yields from these oils were rather low in
comparison with yields from other palm oils (palm kernel,
48–52%; copra, 68%).
Physicochemical properties. The results presented in
Table 2 show that density and refractive indices were similar
for all the species tested. They were comparable to indices for
palm kernel oils. The stability of the extracted oils is con-
veyed by the low acid values and PV, with the exception of
the B. gasipaes species, which had higher values. The un-
saponifiable matter, generally 1 to 3%, was comparable to
values reported for palm kernel oils.
FA composition. As observed in Table 3, the most preva-
lent component of the oils was saturated FA (73–87%), with
lauric (35–60%) and myristic (11–12%) acids making up the
largest proportion of the saturated FA. Hence, copra and palm
kernel oils have been referred to as “lauric oils.”
Sterol composition. Five different sterols were observed in
the oils: St1 (m/z 458; C30H54OSi), St2 (m/z 472; C31H56OSi),
St3 (m/z 484; C32H56OSi), St4 (m/z 486; C32H58OSi), and St5
(m/z 484; C32H56OSi). All of the sterols showed characteristic
fragmentation patterns, with the fragment ions at m/z 73 or
[M − 73]+ corresponding to the loss of the radical group
Me3Si
+
. The fragment ion at m/z 90 was due to the loss of the
TMSOH group, whereas the presence of the fragment ions at
m/z 129 or [M − 129]+ originated from the cleavage of the A
cycle, and m/z 255 was typical of a ∆5 double-bond sterol. Be-
sides the fragmentations mentioned, St1 showed a peak at m/z
345 [M −113]+ corresponding to the loss of the side chain.
This latter formula was C8H17, and St1 was characterized as
cholesterol. The formula of the St2 side chain was determined
50 D. BEREAU ET AL.
JAOCS, Vol. 80, no. 1 (2003)
TABLE 1
Fruit Characteristics and Kernel Oil Extraction Results
Acrocomia lasiospatha Astrocaryum vulgare Bactris gasipaes Elaeis oleifera Maximilana maripa
Kernel/dry fruit (w/w) (%) 8.4 ± 0.6 20.1 ± 3.7 8.9 ± 0.9 19.2 ± 0.5 8 ± 1.6
Oil/kernel (w/w) (%) 17.0 ± 0.7 9.6 ± 1.2 16.4 ±1.4 15.8 ± 0.5 31.3 ± 0.4
Oil/dry fruit (w/w) (%) 1.4 ± 0.1 1.9 ± 0.2 1.3 ± 0.1 3.0 ± 0.1 2.5 ± 0.1
TABLE 2
Physicochemical Characteristics of the Extracted Kernel Oilsa
Acrocomia lasiospatha Astrocaryum vulgare Bactris gasipaes Elaeis oleifera Maximilana maripa
Density 0.94 0.86 0.90 0.96 0.93
Refractive index 1.451 1.435 1.451 1.453 1.449
Acid value (mg KOH) 2.2 5.1 12.2 3.4 2.6
PV (meq O2/kg oil) 8.2 9.0 68.6 6.6 4.0
Unsaponifiable value (%) 0.7 0.7 0.8 0.5 0.6
aResults are mean values of three determinations ± 5%.