Mineral saturated hydrocarbons and mineral aromatic hydrocarbons in tropical plant oils and their removal by molecular distillation

Nowadays, tropical plant oils (e.g., palm oil and coconut oil) are extensively used in consumer products, especially in infant formulas. However, there is a lack of statistical data on the levels of mineral oil in these oils, including mineral saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) and mineral aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH). In this study, we reported a survey of MOSH/MOAH in tropical oils, and in addition, we provided an effective strategy (i.e., molecular distillation) to reduce their contents. A total of 686 tropical plant oils were collected from five tropical countries for this survey. The highest quantifiable MOSH and MOAH concentrations were up to 456.0 and 78.9 mg kg⁻¹, respectively. Interestingly, MOSH was ubiquitous in almost all the tested samples. The distribution of sub-fractions for MOSH centered at C25–C35 and C35–C40 in most crude and refined oils. After distillation, the MOH sub-fraction ≤40 was effectively removed, but >40 was unaltered.