Palm oil adulteration of coconut oil is typically tested by “wet-chemistry” analysis of fats and by assessing indicators such as the average chain length, saponification index, average molecular weight, iodine value, peroxide value and percentage of unsaturation.
This study (open access) shows that the same indicators can be measured, and the same interpretations drawn, using 400 mHz proton NMR. The indicators are calculated indirectly from the chemical shift values for olefinic protons. The authors report that their results correlated well with classical analytical measurements.
They conclude that a single NMR spectroscopy test could replace the suite of conventional wet laboratory methods to test for this common adulteration risk.
Photo by Gerson Repreza on Unsplash
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