Academic exercise Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, Universiti Malaysia Sabah 2021.

Includes bibliographical references.

The extraction of bambangan seed fat (BSF) is increasing because of its potential application in the food industry. Solvent extraction is a common method for the extraction of plant seed oil. The objectives of this study are to determine the effect of solvent pretreatment on the oil yield, and to evaluate the physicochemical properties (iodine value, peroxide value, acid value, refractive index, slip melting point) and the morphological characteristics of the various solvent-extracted BSF. Three different solvents (hexane, petroleum ether and ethanol) were used to extract the fat from bambangan seed using the Soxhlet method. The extraction conditions were fixed at 40 °C with the solid-to-solvent ratio of 1:5 for 6 hrs. Results showed that the oil yield ranged from 2.83 to 7.67%, with the highest yield determined in hexane and lowest in ethanol. Results on the physicochemical properties were as follows: IV (51.30-69.00 g I2/g), PV (1.0-6.2 mEq/g), AV (3.74–7.41 mg KOH/g), RI (1.4651 1.4663, and SMP (28.3-31.7 °C). With respect to the selected physicochemical properties, BSF is ideal to be extracted using the non-polar solvents (hexane and petroleum ether) rather than the polar solvent (ethanol). In the study of crystal morphology, both Hx-BSF and PE-BSF showed perfect spherulites while the EtOH-BSF exhibited an irregular crystal structure. These findings revealed that the oil yield and quality of the BSF were significantly influenced by the extraction solvent due to the solvent polarity. Hexane is the best solvent for BSF extraction because of its highest obtainable oil yield and better quality. In contrast, ethanol is not suggested for BSF extraction due to its least oil yield and inferior quality.