Application of chemometrically processed chemical and thermoanalytical data for quality control of soybean oils

The quality assessment of commercial soybean oils was evaluated on the basis of chemical and thermal analyses. The most substantial chemical parameters, viz. the density, refractive index and saponification, iodine and acid numbers were estimated. The thermal parameters were determined on the grounds of the TG and DTG curves. There are temperatures for the onset, end and successive mass losses. To find the relation between the chemical and thermal parameters, regression and principal component analyses were applied. The results of principal component analysis indicate that the TG and DTG techniques are at least in equal degree useful in defining the quality of soybean oils, as compared with the chemical analyses.