4. Conclusion
Patawa, pracaxi and Brazil nut oils are natural sources of unsaturated
fatty acids. While patawa oil stood out for its high oleic content, and
the Brazil nut oil for its PUFA content, pracaxi oil proved to be a
natural source of behenic acid, especially interesting due its neutral
impact in serum lipid content. On the other hand, murumuru fat and
tucuma kernel oil are interesting lauric lipids, whereas bacuri fat
presented a high content of tripalmitin, quite interesting for
applications such as production of lipid nanoparticles. Concerning
physiochemical properties, the high acidity and phosphorous values of
some of the samples showed that optimal parameters for extraction of
these fats and oils is an important demand, as well as, the evaluation
of refining steps, such as neutralization, and degumming, in order to
improve their quality indexes.
Solid fat content evaluation showed that murumuru fat and tucuma kernel
oil could be interesting ingredients for applications which demand low
solid content at body temperature, such as margarines, or used as cocoa
butter replacers. On the other hand, bacuri fat exhibited a smooth SFC
decay similar to shortenings SFC profiles.
The crystallization/melting patterns of the samples are quite
particular. While pracaxi and Brazil nut oils, and bacuri fat presented
fractions with separated crystallization/melting behavior, patawa and
tucuma kernel oils, and murumuru fat presented sharper and low-range
melting profiles. In this context, blends improved the spectrum of
alternative melting profiles. The increasing presence of unsaturated
TAGs in the solid fats expanded the melting range of the blends. Since
melting range influences the texture of a fat, the blends developed here
can be utilized in the creation of products with good mouthfeel. For
this purpose, it is essential to know the ratios of high and low melting
TAGs of the blends. Overall, our findings provide new information,
showing that the studied Amazon fats and oils may be suitable for
developing new fatty products in the food industry.