Babassu Oil (Orbynia phalerata), an Artisanal Product: Process Optimization of Seed Roasting on Yield,Phenolic Compounds,and Antioxidant Capacity

Babassu oil has high concentrations of phenolic compounds. When seeds are preheated, these compounds tend to migrate to the oil depending on the degree of roasting applied. This study aims to optimize the roasting conditions of babassu seeds using response surface methodology (RSM) and the desirability functions. A central composite rotational design (CCRD) is employed to investigate the effects of two independent variables, temperature (X₁) and roasting time (X₂) which significantly affected response variables, namely yield (%), total phenolics content (TPC), number of phenolic compounds, oxygen radical absorbance capacity, acid value and peroxide value. The quadratic model is adjusted for most responses. The roasting temperature of 222 °C and the roasting time of 43 min are standardized as ideal conditions. Thus, the oil produced at the optimized conditions shows a yield of 54.47% and TPC of 91.53 mg GAE/100 g. In the control oil sample, the presence of phenolic compounds analyzed by HPLC-DAD is not observed while under optimized conditions, seven phenolic compounds are observed. The model of optimized conditions shows a good correlation between the predicted and experimental values. In general, these results demonstrate the effectiveness of optimum roasting conditions in improving the quality of bioactive compounds in babassu oil. Practical Applications : This work aims to optimize the babassu seeds roasting process to obtain oil with a greater number of phenolic compounds and better antioxidant capacity. As the first study on babassu seeds roasting, it contributes to the generation of important data in relation to the identification and quantification of phenolic compounds in the oil. Finally, the optimum roasting conditions established in this work can be explored commercially in babassu oil extraction.