- Rupali Dhara: Oil Technology Section, Department of Chemical Technology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata 700 009, India.
The amount and characterization of phytosterol and other minor components present in three Indian minor seed oils, mahua (Madhuca latifolia), sal (Shorea robusta) and mango kernel (Mangifera indica), have been done. Theses oils have shown commercial importance as cocoa-butter substitutes because of their high symmetrical triglycerides content. The conventional thin layer chromatography (TLC), gas chromatography (GC) & gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) techniques were used to characterize the components and the high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) technique was used to quantify the each group of components. The experimental data showed that the all the three oils are rich in sterol content and among all the sterols, beta-sitosterol occupies the highest amount. Sal oil contains appreciable amount of cardenolides, gitoxigenin. Tocopherol is present only in mahua oil and oleyl alcohol is present in mango kernel oil. Hydrocarbon, squalene, is present in all the three oils. The characterization of these minor components will help to detect the presence of the particular oil in specific formulations and to assess its stability as well as nutritional quality of the specific oil.