Obtenção, caracterização e aplicação do óleo de munguba

Abstract

Munguba (Pachira aquatica Aublet) is a fruit rich in oil, mostly composed of saturated fatty substances. Munguba oil has promising characteristics for application as un intermediate or final product in the industrial sectors such as food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and biofuel. The oil yield and quality may change due to various factors such as soil, weather and injuries faced by the plant and the extraction method employed. The objective this work was to obtain and characterize munguba oil, as well as to develop cosmetic emulsions containing different oil concentrations, evaluating the stability and potential antioxidant activity. The oil was obtained by the ultrasound assisted extraction method using hexane as solvent. The oil characterization was performed by determining acidity, iodine, peroxide, saponification and refraction indices, density, viscosity, ash content and humidity and melting point. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermal analysis, chromatographic analysis to determine the lipid profile and determination of the total phenol by the Folin Ciocalteu method were also performed. The munguba oil extracted was used to develop cosmetic emulsions at concentrations of 3 and 5 %. In order to compare the potential antioxidant activity, control emulsions containing butylhydroxytoluene (BHT) were prepared in concentrations of 0.005 and 0.05 %. The macroscopic analysis was performed to verify the organoleptic characteristics and homogeneity of the formulations, followed preliminary and accelerated stability tests and potential antioxidant activity were performed by the DPPH method (capture of 2,2 diphenyl-1- pricylhydrazyl by antioxidants). The extraction yielded 47.70 % oil with adequate quality and thermal stability up to 300 °C, consisting mainly of palmitic acid (C16:0) and total phenol content of 55.02 ± 1.872 g/EAGg. Emulsions containing 3 and 5 % oil showed no significant difference regarding potential antioxidant activity. Thus, stability studies were performed with emulsions containing 3 %, which maintained stability during the 90 days of study when exposed to temperatures of 25 and 5 °C against the evaluated parameters. However, they cannot be exposed to high temperatures and light radiation, because under these conditions phase separation occurs. The emulsion containing 3 % oil showed higher potential antioxidant activity than emulsions containing 0.005 % BHT and similar to emulsions with 0.05 % BHT. The results suggest that the ultrasound assisted extraction method has the potential to obtain vegetable oils without changing their characteristics and quality, besides allowing the optimization of time, solvent volume and operational cost. Furthermore, munguba oil presented favorable characteristics for the development of sustainable products and with application in different industrial sectors, besides generating the use of Amazonian natural resources.