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.