Extraction Yield of Palm Oil and Carotenoids Value from Microwave-Sterilized Oil Palm Mesocarp

Abstract

Steam batch sterilization is favorably utilized by conventional palm oil mills in Malaysia. However, there are some disadvantages to using steam batch sterilization, including the fact that it takes a long time to complete the sterilizing process, and a huge amount of wastewater is released as palm oil mill effluent (POME). Besides, extraction by fruit press expeller requires a large number of nuts or seeds to produce a high yield, which is relatively expensive. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the capability of microwave sterilization and the Soxhlet extraction (solvent extraction) process as an alternative to the conventional method. The impact of various microwave power levels of 400, 600, and 800 W and water ratios of 0, 50, and 100 mL on oil yield and carotenoids value of microwave-sterilized oil palm mesocarp are also investigated. Microwave sterilization and Soxhlet extraction have been employed as a replacement for the conventional method of extracting a higher yield of palm oil mesocarp in order to fill the gap by the previous research, which applied two methods: microwave sterilization (power level) and extraction. Then, carotenoid value analysis with a UV spectrophotometer is utilized to examine the outcomes in order to demonstrate the efficacy of the method. As a result, a high oil yield and carotenoid value are produced, which is 59.31% at 800W with the absence of water (0 mL) and a carotenoid value of 757 ppm at 400W (0 mL), respectively. Meanwhile, other carotenoid values at different microwave power levels and water ratios are still within the acceptable range as per the commercial crude palm oil standard.