Comparative Study of Physiochemical Properties of Different Brands of Vegetable Oil Sold in Ihiala Market of Anambra State

Objective: To compare the physicochemical properties of four brands of vegetable oil sold in Ihiala market.

Methods: The samples were brought from different super stores in Ihiala market and standard methods were used to analyze the physicochemical properties of the various samples.

Results: The analysis showed that the peroxide value, saponification values, acid value, ester value and glycerol of palm kernel oil (43.91 ± 0.01, 1234.20 ± 0.01, 74.14 ± 0.01, 38.56 ± 0.02, 1195.60 ± 0.01 and 65.40 ± 0.02) is significantly higher than Lahda, Devon King’s and Power vegetable oil P < 0.05. While the iodine value, refractive index and specific gravity of Power oil and Devon King’s oil (56.53 ± 0.10, 0.26 ± 0.01 and 0.91 ± 0.01) brought from Ihiala market were significantly higher than the other brands of vegetable oil i.e Lahda and Palm Kernel oil at P < 0.05. There is no significant difference in the refractive index and specific gravity of Palm kernel and Lahda oil (0.01 ± 0.01 and 0.01 ± 0.01) at P < 0.05.

Conclusion: The difference in the values of iodine, peroxide, saponification, acid value, FFA, ester value and glycerol level in the samples could be attributed to differences in the sources of the oil and in processing. However, the nutritional composition of the vegetable brands is still adequate for human consumption except that of Palm Kernel oil which has the highest values from the above analysis.