Shea olein based specialty fats: Preparation, characterization and potential application

To expand low melting point “liquid” base oil categories of plastic fats, the soft fat named SheaOL25 as a byproduct of shea butter with a melting point of 25.5 °C was achieved via solvent fractionating of shea butter, and abounded in oleic acid and stearic acid/oleic acid/oleic acid (SOO) type triacylglycerols. The compatibility test with palm-based oil and coconut oil showed the desirable linear relationship of isothermal curve. At temperatures above 25 °C, SheaOL25 exhibits good compatibility and could serve as a blending base oil for preparing specialty fats. Compared with palm olein, blending SheaOL25 and palm stearin can significantly expedite crystallization rate and retard crystallization rate after interesterification, thereby stabilizing the β′ crystal form in the system. Further exploration of SheaOL25 as “liquid” oil in oil-in-water emulsion system revealed that SheaOL25 as the oil phase can significantly improve the system's stability compared with the control groups of soybean oil and palm olein towards maintaining the particle size and emulsion stability under high temperatures.