Characterization, I. R. Spectrophotometric, GC- Ms. and Free Fatty Acid Profile Analysis of Extracted Oil from Almond Tamilanida Catappa Tree Fruits Seed

Almond catappa tree is one of the C3 plant in Nigeria tropics, usually planted as an umbrella tree and as a source of fruits. Therefore, the need to investigate and characterized the extracted oil from the fruits seeds, using standard methods. The physicochemical parameters results reveal the Free fatty acid value as 8.46±0.04%, acid value: 14.025±0.02mg/KOH, saponification value: 446.57±0.01mg/g, peroxide value: 180.00±0.02meg/kg, Iodine value: 1.147±0.01gI2/100g, Refractive index: 1.426±0.01, Viscosity: Density: 0.824±0.01g/cm3and has a light yellow color. Peroxide value and saponification value, was the only high value observed among the physic chemical parameters. The infra-red spectrum of the sample reveal nine major peaks: they are 3005.9cm-1, 2922.64cm-1, 2853.33cm-1, 1744.57cm-1, 1458.15cm-1, 1377.36cm-1, 1159.31cm-1, 1097.57cm-1, 721.73cm-1 and The results of the poly aromatic hydrocarbon compound present confirm the use of the oil as a petroleum product because of the double and condense rings present, which are: naphthalene, fluorene, acetylnaphthalene, anthracene, aenaphthalene, fluoroanthrene, chyrene, benzylanthracene, benzol(b)fluoroanthrene and pyrene. It also contain sixteen fatty acids, with the oleic acid: 62.0737%, linoleic acid: 18.9768%, palmitic acid: 12.5099%, stearic acid: 4.8367% and the rest were bellow 1%.

In conclusion, the oil does not compared favorably with other vegetable oils properties, and to ascertain its quality, also, the present of benzaldehyde at 3005.9cm-1 as C-H stretch for aromatic benzene ring, peaks at 2922.63cm-1 and 2853.33cm-1 as aliphatic C—H stretching of an aldehyde group, peaks at 1744.57cm-1 is due to carbonyl aromatic aldehyde group and mono substituted benzene at 721.73cm-1 and the presence of poly aromatic hydrocarbon indicated its property as one of the oils that can be used in processing petroleum.