In order to find the exact characteristics of cacao butter with regard to its purity judgment, general properties, especially chemical composition, fats extracted from 22 kinds of cacao beans and 20 kinds of cacao butter products were analyzed, and the following results were obtained.
1) In total fatty acid composition, the main components were C16, C18, and C18 : 1 acids, being present in 27, 34, and 35%, respectively. This composition is rather rare among other vegetable fats.
2) The total number of carbons in the acyl chains of the triglyceride was almost 50, 52, and 54, whereas it's distribution among samples was relatively similar, being approximately 18, 52 and 30%, respectively.
3) In the extracted fats, fatty acid composition in 2-position was C18 : 1 in more than 80%, and unsaturated fatty acids in more than 90% whereas saturated acids consisted of a small amount of C16 and C18 acids. Some products, however, clearly contained a larger amount of saturated acids and a smaller amount of C18 : 1 acid.
4) Sterol composition of the extracted fats showed a slight variation according to the locality of production but generally contained campesterol, stigmasterol, and sitosterol in approximately 1 : 4 : 9 ratio. Presence of a large amount of stigmasterol is the prominent feature of cacao butter and this is not found in other vegetable fats. It was also found that there was a definite negative correlation in the composition ratio of stigmasterol and sitosterol.
5) As an index for the judgement of purity of cacao butter, ratios of C16/C18, stigmasterol/campesterol, a few others were examined, and it was found that the factor based on the distribution of the total number of carbons in the acyl chains of the triglyceride showed little scatter and was found to be useful.
