Frying Performance Testing of Camellia oleifera Oil

The oil derived from the seeds of Camellia oleifera, commonly referred to as tea-seed oil, has been used in China and Southeast Asia for hundreds of years.  Although it has many industrial uses, Camellia oil is most commonly consumed as a cooking oil with roughly one seventh of the Chinese population using it for this purpose. Camellia oil has certain physiochemical properties that are beneficial to human health and these properties also contribute to the heat stability of the oil.  This study examined how Camellia oil and oils with similar chemical characteristics, peanut and soybean, respond to high heat stress during frying and what degradation products were produced. Over five consecutive days, each oil was subjected to high temperatures through the frying of potatoes. An oil sample was taken each day to determine how the oil changed physiochemically over time. A series of analysis were conducted to determine the fatty acid profile, peroxide value, acid value, and total polymeric materials of each oil for each day. These tests are important to determine how the beneficial and potentially negative nutritional aspects of the oil change during heating as this could have effects on human health.  Overall, peanut oil was most stable under high heat and frying conditions followed by Camellia and soybean oils, respectively.  The fatty acid profile for peanut oil changed the least during frying, peroxide values peaked at 2.1 mg peroxide/kg oil, acid values at 0.4mg KOH/g oil, and total polymeric material values topping 11 units. Even though the physiochemistry of peanut oil remained most unchanged, there are still potentially greater health benefits with using Camellia oil for the purpose of frying under high heat. Further research is being conducted to determine the biodiesel potential of tea-seed oil. The remaining oil from the frying portion of the project will be chemically converted into biodiesel. Each oil will then be subjected to a number of tests to determine the quality of product that can be produced from a highly oxidized feedstock.