Abstract:
Oils constitute one of the essential components of balanced diet as good source of energy. The chemical and physical properties of oils are amongst the most important properties that
determine the quality and help to describe the present condition of oils. Lipid oxidation has
harmful effects on both food quality and human health. Then efforts must be made to minimize oxidation and improve oxidative stability of lipid products. The reactions during the frying/cooking process and storage conditions depend on factors such as the original quality of the oil, type of oil, concentration of antioxidants and oxygen. Edible oil, being obtained from vegetable sources, is primarily composed of fatty acids and used for cooking, medicinal and cosmetic purposes. It is estimated that about 90% of vegetable oils are used for edible purposes.
Different authors discussed various techniques such as mechanical extraction, solvent extraction, traditional extraction and super critical fluid extraction which they used to obtain the oil from the seeds. The solvent extraction has become the most popular method of extraction of oil because of its high percentage of oil recovery from seeds. Solvent extraction bridges the gap between mechanical extraction which produces oil with high turbidity metal and water content and supercritical fluid extraction which is very expensive to build and maintain its facilities.
There is need for people of Uganda and across the world to increase the growth and production of oil nuts. These is because nut oils have got uncountable applications in daily life such as consumption of raw nuts, cooking oil, food industry, cosmetics, detergent industries as well as animal feeding. Further more people should adopt the simple and traditional method of oil extraction as these will increase production of more oil to solve the current crisis in our country.
Keywords: Physicochemical properties, nuts, oils, Uganda
