Physicochemical properties and thermal behaviour of African wild mango (Irvingia gabonensis) seed oil.

African wild mango (lrvingia gabonensis) is now recognized for its numerous food and medicinal uses. This plant produces seeds rich in fat, which is traditionally used as a soup thickener. in the present
study, the proximate composition of seeds from lrvingia gabonensis is reported. The oil from the seeds was then solvent extracted; its fatty acid (FA) and triacylglycerol (TG) profiles were determined. Besides this chemical characterization, the melting and crystallization behaviour
of the extracted fat was studied by pNMR, DSC and X-ray diffraction. The result of this investigation showed that the seeds from lrvingia gabonensis (IG) represent an important source of lipids (69-75%), rich in myristic (49.8%) and lauric acid (37%). This fat can be classified among "lauric fats". IG oil presents a good oxidative stability due to its low content in unsaturated fatty acid. The melting profiles of IG oil indicates that a high amount of fat remains solid at temperatures up to
30°C; the complete melting was detected at around 40C. The most stable polymorph of this fat is the β'1 -form.