Potentialities of Ivorian mango (Mangifera indica. L) kernel fat fractions produced by solvent fractionation

Mango is the most popular fruit in Ivory Coast. Unfortunately, after local direct consumption or industrial processing of the pulp, the seeds are always discarded as waste, while they represent an interesting source of edible fat. Mango kernel fat (MKF) contains high amount of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids (FA) and is rich in di-saturated TAGs of the SOS-type (S = saturated, O = oleic acid). Recently, we extracted and characterized MKF from seven specific Ivory Coast varieties. We found that they were significantly different in terms of composition and physical behaviour (Kouassi et al, 2023) ; four groups were proposed according to their main TAG (St = stearic acid): I = very low-StOSt fat, II = low-StOSt fats, III = medium-StOSt fats, and IV = high-StOSt fat. There is an increasing demand for SOS-rich fats with a similar composition to CB and producing SOS-rich fats from cheap, reliable and readily available raw materials is of interest. Fractionation process is a way to tailor the chemical composition of fats. Therefore, in this work, among the seven Ivorian varieties, two were selected (Kent, KT and Djakoumankoun, DN) based on their chemical composition (High and low StOSt fats) and their availabilities and were solvent fractionated (one-stage acetone lab-fractionation) to concentrate the SOS TAGs. Analyses such as TAG and fatty acid (FA) composition, iodine value, crystallization and melting properties by DSC, solid fat content melting profile by p-NMR, and polymorphism by powder X-ray diffraction were carried out to characterize the so-obtained fractions. As expected, the major FA of stearin fractions were palmitic, stearic, and oleic acids. The stearin complete melting was detected at around 37°C, these fractions were stable in β-form. Due to their very different initial TAG composition, the stearin yield was about 73% for DN but only 34% for KT.