Thermal stability studies of some cerrado plant oils

Thermogravimetry technique is useful to determine the thermal stability of vegetable oils. In this paper some vegetable oils obtained from brazilian Cerrado native plants were studied based on their high oleic acid content. Amburana, baru and pequi pulp oils presented higher yield of extraction compared to soybean oil. The thermal stability of oils in nitrogen was very close hence their fatty acid composition was very similar. Amburana and baru oils have major amount of unsaturated fatty acids, especially linoleic acid and pequi pulp oil has the highest short chain fatty acid content which can explain its lowest thermal stability in synthetic air.