CHEMICAL PROPERTIES

& ANALYSIS OF
FATS & OILS

PRESENTED BY:
MAITHRI E R
MEERA R
MURALI KRISHNA
NANDA S S
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• Fats and oils comprise one of the three major classes of
foods we eat, the others being carbohydrates and proteins.
• They belongs to the naturally occurring group of
compounds called lipids . All fats and oils are lipids but all
lipids are not fats and oils
• Chemically they may be defined as triesters of glycerol
and various long chain monocarboxylic acids known as
fatty acids that form triglycerides

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 Tri-esters of long chain of fatty acids with glycerol

GLYCEROL FATTY ACID Triglycerides(fat)

Esterification reaction 3
 Fats Oils

solids at room temperature liquids at room temperature

Esters of saturated fatty acids Esters of unsaturated fatty acids

Fats have high melting and boiling Oils have low melting and boiling
point point
Fats are found in animals Oils are found in both animals and
plants(vegetables)

Examples: ghee, butter, cheese Examples: almond oil, olive oil,

coconut oil

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 CHEMICAL REACTIONS

•SAPONIFICATION
•HYDROLYSIS
•HYDROGENATION
•RANCIDIFICATION
•DRYING OF OILS

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SAPONIFICATION
• A chemical reaction caused by addition of
alkali in which the fatty acids attached to a
glycerol are cleaved off to produce
soap(fatty acid salts and a glycerol
molecule.
• Some of the properties are odourless,
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fislandlifesoap.ca%2Fblogs%2Fisland-life-soap%2Fsaponifica
tion&psig=AOvVaw0m9H1W1L9UD3Ue9TDlnYsS&ust=1615307511051000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqF
woTCMje1MWPoe8CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

tasteless and insoluble in water

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HYDROLYSIS
• In this reaction, triglycerides are easily hydrolysed by enzymes called
lipase(catalyst) in the digestive tract of animals to give fatty acid and
glycerol
• The fatty acids so produced play an important role in the metabolic
process in the animal body

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HYDROGENATION (reduction process)
• Unsaturated glycerides react with hydrogen in the process of a metal
catalyst to give saturated glycerides
• Vegetable oils are triglycerides of unsaturated fatty acid such as oleic
acid and after reaction it forms saturated glycerides with in solid form
• It is also called hardening
• Used for manufacturing of vegetable ghee

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 RANCIDITY OF OILS- Rancidification
• When fats and oils are left exposed to moist air, they develop foul smell
and sour taste
(a) Hydrolytic Rancidification
• Rancidity is by hydrolysis of the ester linkage
• The rancid smell is due to the release of fatty acid
• Hydrolytic rancidity can be reduced by refrigeration
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pernatural.com%2Fkeeping-butter-fresh%2F&psig=AOvVaw1LAHp
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cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqGAoTCNjE6dCkoe8CFQAAAAAdAAAAABC4
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(b) Oxidative rancidification
•It occurs for unsaturated fats and oils.
•Oxygen addition occurs in C=C and produce volatile carboxylic acid groups.
•It can only be reduced by the addition of anti-oxidants.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffoodcrumbles.com%2Ffood-spoilage-rancidity-and-food-chemistry%2F&psig=AOvVaw04BHmLP
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 DRYING OF OILS
• When highly unsaturated oil are exposed to air,
they undergo oxidation and polymerization to
form a thin waterproof film
• These oils are called drying oil and the process
is known as drying https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDrying_oil&psig=A
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• Eg: linseed oil , which is rich in linolenic acid ,is

a common drying oil used in oil basedOHpaints
O Co2+ Co3+ + OH-
O
from air

O2
Hydroperoxide

Polymerisation

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ANALYTICAL CONSTANTS OF
FATS AND OILS
• Acid value
• Saponification value
• Iodine value
• Ester value
• Reichert-Meissl (RM value)
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Acid value
It is used to measure the free acid present in fats and oils and these free fatty acids in
fats and oils are harmful to humans

Principle:-

It is determined by directly titrating the oils/fats in an alcoholic medium against

standard potassium hydroxide/sodium hydroxide solution
Dissolved about 10gm of sample in 50ml of mixture of equal volume of ethanol(95%)
and ether, then neutralise with 0.1M KOH and add phenolphthalein solution as a
indicator

acid value = 5.61𝑛/𝑤

where, n=burette reading

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w=sample weight
Acid- Base Titration

KOH/NaOH

Phenolphthalein indicator
END POINT: colourless to light pink

Fat + Solvent https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277453066/figure/tbl1/AS:67002

2640889865@1536757254437/Acid-value-in-representative-oils.png

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Significance:-

• The value is a measure of the amount of fatty acid which have been
liberated by hydrolysis from the glycerides due to the action of
moisture, temperature and lipolytic enzyme lipase
• Therefore oils with increased acid number are unsafe(harmful) for
human consumption

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Saponification value(koettstorfer number)
• Saponification is the process by which the ester & fatty acids in the
triglycerides on fats are hydrolysed by an alkali to give glycerol and
potassium/sodium salts of fatty acids
• It is the measure of average molecular weight of the fatty acids present

Principle:-
• It is the number of mg(milligrams) of KOH required to saponify one gram of
fat and oil.
• A known quantity of fats and oils is refluxed with an excess amount of
alcoholic KOH
• After saponification, it is titrated against a standard acid.
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Acid – Base Titration

HCl

Phenolphthalein indicator
END POINT: pink to colourless

Fat + KOH (reflux)

https://oilpalmblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/sv.png

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• sample is titrated with 0.5M HCl(a)
• Perform blank titration(b)
• The value obtained is used for the determination of saponification value of fats and oils
• Phenolphthalein solution is used as indicator

saponification value= 28.05(𝑏−𝑎)/𝑤

where w= weight of sample

Significance
• The magnitude of saponification value gives an idea about the average molecular weight
of the oils and fat

• According to this, when saponification value increases, molecular weight decreases

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Ester value
• It is the number of mg of KOH required to saponify the ester present in 1g
of the substances
Ester value = saponification value – acid value

• ACID VALUE number of free fatty acids present

• SAPONIFICATION VALUE number of free fatty acids + esters

Significance
• The ester value shows the amount of alkali consumed in the saponification
of the ester and is possible to identify and differentiate the fats with this
value
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Iodine value

• It is the number of grams of iodine that would add to C=C present in 100g of the fats
or oils
Principle:-
• The oil/fat sample taken in carbon tetrachloride is treated with a known excess of
iodine monochloride solution in glacial acetic acid
• The excess of iodine monochloride is treated with potassium iodide
• Now this sample is titrated against 0.1N sodium thiosulphate solution, here starch
solution is used as indicator for estimation of liberated iodine(a)
• The perform a blank titration (b)

𝑖𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 = 1.269(𝑏−𝑎)/𝑤 20

Iodometric Titration

0.1 N Na2S2O3

Starch indicator
Purple-blue to colourless

Iodine
(a)Fat + solvent + Wijs solution
(b) Treated with KI
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Na2S2O3 + I2 Na2S4O6 + NaI

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Significance:-

• The iodine value is a measure of the amount of double

bond(unsaturation) in fats
• Iodine value increases then number of double bonds increases
• Unsaturated lipids are more susceptible to rancidity

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Reichert-Meissl Number(RM value)

• It is useful in testing the purity of butter, since it contains a good concentration of volatile
fatty acids( butyric acid, caproic acid, and caprylic acid)
• So, it is defined to completely neutralize the soluble volatile fatty acids distilled from 5g
fat
Principle:-
• Fat is saponified using glycerol- alkali solution and acidified by sulphuric acid to liberate
free fatty acids
• The liberated fatty acids are steam distilled and the steam volatile fatty acids are
condensated
• The cooled condensate of the volatile fatty acids is filtered for separation of water
soluble and water insoluble fatty acid
• The water soluble fatty acids is titrated with alkali to give RM value

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25
Thus, adulteration of butter can be easily tested by this sensitive RM number
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Significance:-
• It is the measure of water soluble volatile fatty acids which are
present in oils and fats
• Butter fat contain butyric acid glycerides and no other fat contain it,
so RM value is high for butter fat
• These determination have been used principally for analysis of butter

RM value of butter : (25-30)

RM value of oil : <1

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 REFERENCES
•Fats and Oils Handbook by Michael Bockisch

•The Chemistry of Oils and Fats Sources, Composition, Properties, and Uses by Frank D. Gunstone

•https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/General_Chemistry/Book%3A_ChemPRIME_(Moore_et_al.)/14%3A_Ionic_Equili
bria_in_Aqueous_Solutions/14.10%3A_Titration_Curves/14.10.01%3A_Foods-_
Acid_Value_and_the_Quality_of_Fats_and_Oils

•https://youtu.be/_5ObG6fIAdQ

•https://ayushportal.nic.in/EMR/DRUG_FINAL_REPORT-3.pdf

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