Testing the Frying Performance of Camellia oleifera Oil

Camellia oleifera seed extract, or tea-seed oil, has been used in China and southeast Asia for thousands of years as a cooking oil. It has been commonly referred to as the “eastern olive oil” due to health benefits associated with its consumption. Camellia oil has certain physiochemical properties that are beneficial to human health and these properties also contribute to the heat stability of the oil. 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. 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. A series of analysis were conducted on an oil sample taken from each day to determine the fatty acid profile, peroxide value, acid value and total polymeric materials in the waste oil. 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.  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. 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. Further research is being conducted to determine the biodiesel potential of tea-seed oil. The remaining waste oil from the final day of the frying portion of the project will be transesterified into biodiesel and 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.