European Journal of Biotechnology and Bioscience

Authors
Mary Oluchi Iwuagwu, Charles Ugochukwu Solomon, Juliet Ezinwa Amanze

Abstract
The physicochemical properties of orange and pumpkin seed oils were analyzed and their fatty acid composition determined and characterized in this study. The oils were extracted from their powdered seed samples in a soxhlet apparatus with hexane. The orange and pumpkin oils showed values within the range for edible vegetable oils with yields of 36% and 40.4%, respectively. Orange seed oil presented better quality relative to pumpkin as it showed lower values of peroxide, acid index and free fatty acids. Palmitic, stearic, oleic and linoleic were the predominant fatty acids found in the two seed oils. Both oils were high in unsaturated fatty acid (74.11 and 72.94% for orange and pumpkin, respectively) with oleic (43.03%) and linoleic (52.61%) being the predominant fatty acid in orange and pumpkin seed oil, respectively. Therefore, orange and pumpkin seeds could be utilized as raw materials for oil extraction instead of being discarded.