Evaluation of seed oil from Hura crepitans, Trichosanthes cucumerina and Thevetia nerifolia

Abstract

The oil contents and fatty acid composition of three non-edible seed oils extracted using Soxhlet extraction with hexane as the solvent were presented. The physical and chemical properties of the oils were determined from which cetane number, biofuel potential, higher heating values, and antimicrobial activities were assessed. The dominant fatty acids were 49 % linoleic acid, 37 % pentadecenoic acid, and 38 % cis-10-heptadecenenoic acid for Hura crepitans (HC), Thevetia nerifolia (TN) and Trichosanthes cucumerina (TC), respectively. The seed oils were majorly unsaturated, with HC having the highest degree of unsaturation. Acid value, saponification value, iodine value, and free fatty acids were low compared to many reported values in literature. The cetane values were generally high because the oils have a reasonable amount of saturated fatty acid, with TN having the highest cetane number. The low iodine value and saponification value make the biofuel potential and higher heating value to be high with TN having the highest in both and thus the best seed oil for biofuel. However, TN and HC have no antimicrobial activity to Klebsiella pneumoniae (gram -ve), Staphylococcus aureus (gram +ve), Escherichia coli (gram -ve), Bacillus subtilis, Enterobacter aerogenes, Candida albican, Rhizopus stolonifer, Fusarium Solani, Aspergillus flavus and Candida tropicalis, while TC has broad spectrum of activity against all tested bacteria and fungi, except Klebsiella pneumoniae.