Comparison between the Nutritional Qualities of Oil Extracted from Gac Aril by Solvent Method with Ohmic Heating and Conventional Methods

Abstract. Nutritional qualities of Gac aril oil extracted by three different methods including mechanical press and solvent extractions using ohmic and conventional heating treatments were compared. The main objective was to determine the extraction technique that provided high nutritional quality. For mechanical method, oil was extracted using a screw press whereas three extraction stages were applied for solvent methods with the ratios of Gac aril powder:hexane at 1:7, 1:6, 1:5 for 7, 6, and 5 h, respectively. It appeared that the solvent extraction with ohmic heating provided superior nutritional quality of Gac aril oil with the highest values of total antioxidant activities, total phenolic content, omega-3 and 6 fatty acids, ß-carotene and lycopene in comparison with its counterparts. The scanning electron micrographs showed that ohmic heating influenced oil quality by distraction of cell membrane structure. Key fatty acids in oil obtained from ohmic method were oleic, palmitic, stearic and linoleic acids. It also contained ß-carotene and lycopene at 58.22 and 15.68 mg/100 g, respectively. Keywords: Emerging technology, Gac aril oil, Gac fruit, Nutrition, Ohmic heating.