INTERESTERIFICATION OF COCONUT OIL FOR PRODUCTION OF HIGH TRILAURIN COMPOSITION

• Main Author: Anisha Puteri, Niken
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/67448
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Indonesia is the largest coconut producing country in the world with a total production of 18 million tons in 2018. One of the products from coconut plants that is beneficial is coconut oil. Coconut oil is dominated by lauric acid, which is 41% -56%. Lauric acid combines with glycerin to produce triglycerides. One of the triglycerides from coconut oil that has many benefits for the food, pharmacy and cosmetic is Trilaurin. The theoretical composition of trilaurin in coconut oil is 21.88%. In this reasearch, the process of preparing fatty acids with directed interesterification was carried out to produce trilaurin from coconut oil. This interesterification reaction was carried out with added potassium methylate as a catalyst and followed by staging to separate the triglycerides formed at temperatures of 50oC, 35oC, and 28oC. The separated triglycerides were tested for iodine number and saponification number. This research was conducted by varying the ratio between the amount of solvent and coconut oil, namely 1:1, 1:2, and 1:3, and the method of adding a catalyst. The best crystal separation at a temperature of 35oC was 4.97 grams or 23.16% achieved by interesterification when the oil:solvent variation was 1:3 with the method of adding a catalyst gradually.The resulting iodine number is 0.91g-I2/100g oil and the saponification number is 269.02 mg KOH/g oil. The results of gas chromatography analysis of liquid phase samples reduced the content of long chain fatty acids such as myristic acid, palmitic acid and stearic acid by about 1%.