Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) lipids: Extraction and characterization

Abstract

Lipids extraction from dried coconut meat is conducted by maceration using chloroform/methanol (2:1,v/v) and partition extraction with n-hexane/87% ethanol (3:1), and column chromatography. Lipids are analyzed using FTIR, GC-MS, and TLC. Results reveal that dryed coconut meat has 0.04% phospolipids, 0.22% of neutral lipids, and 0.04% of glycolipids and ceramides. Coconut phospolipids consist of phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylserine (PS), and/or phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) classes for the hydrophilic parts with dodecanoic acid (C12: 0), hexadecanoic acid (C16:0) and octadecanoic acid (C18: 0) as the lipophilic parts.