Abstract
Coconut, Cocos mucifera L. has multiple applications, and one of more important one is the use of coconut oil in cooking. Current coconut oil extraction is using dried coconut copra. This study uses freshly grated coconut flesh as raw material to extract the oil using supercritical fluid extraction technique with carbon dioxide as the solvent. Three different pressures and temperatures were used in 9 different combinations. As much as 23.1g coconut oil per 100g grated coconut was obtained at 20.7 MPa and 30°C. The rate of oil extracted for the first thirty minutes was 0.60g oil per 100 g grated coconut/ minute. Increasing the temperature to 50°C while retaining the pressure extracted only 21g of oil per 100g grated coconut with slightly lower rate of 0.5g oil per 100g grated coconut. Oil yield as little as 0.9g oil per 100g grated coconut was extracted at pressure - temperature combination of 8.3 MPa and 50°C, respectively with average extraction rate of 0.02g oil / 100g grated coconut/ minute for the first 30 minutes. At 8.3 MPa the extraction curve showed a slow upward trend, while at higher pressure, the extraction curves were typical showing the three regions found in the supercritical fluid extraction of natural products. The curves begin with a straight line characteristic of a constant rate extraction period, followed by a falling rate period and ending with diffusion by diffusion rate phase. The extracted coconut oil has about 50% lauric acid, C12 followed by about 18% myristic acid, C14.
