Multivariate study of raman spectral data of edible oils

Abstract

The study of structural differences and thermal degradation of edible oils during heating is presented in this paper. Five types of edible oil were used for the study: extra virgin olive oil, pomace olive oil, canola, sunflower and palm oil. The data for evaluation were acquired by Raman spectroscopy as this innovative method offers rapid, nondestructive, reagent free measurements, provides specific information on chemical composition and structure of material and enables detection of structural changes. For the processing of large data sets multivariate analytical method Cluster analysis and Principal component analysis are applied to highlight the patterns within the data. The results show good agreement with the known ratio of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids in the vegetable oils. The evaluation of thermal degradation process is also based on the major decomposition product of oxidized linoleate appearing in Raman spectra via band 1640 cm -1 . Thermal degradation was observed for all the studied oils. Mathematically processed data indicate the least effect of heating for olive oils, the greatest degradation and loss of unsaturation for sunflower oil. © 2018, World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society. All rights reserved.