The Study of the Physical Indices and Characterization of Oil Extract from Rhynchophorus Ferrugineus Larva (Raffia Palm Maggot)

This paper carried out experimental study through extraction and characterization of oil extract from Rhynchophorus ferrugineus larvae. Normal hexane was used as solvent for the Soxhlet method of extraction which gives the highest percentage oil yield of 24.6% of all the other methods (Maceration method 18.2%, Cold Extraction Method 10.6%). The physicochemical analysis revealed that the tested paramaters which includes, iodine value, specific gravity, refractive index, saponification value, cholesterol value, acid value, peroxide value, free fatty acid value, viscosity etc falls within the CODEX acceptable limit of edible vegetable oil. The unsaturated nature of the oil was revealed by the fatty acid profile test using gas chromatography because of the presence of palmitoleate which is an ester of palmitoleic acid, an omega 7 mono unsaturated fatty acid and also by the iodine value (128.1892mg/g) which is a measure of the degree of unsaturation in edible oil, which falls within the range of class of oil known as semidrying oil, suggesting that the oil contains some proportion of unsaturated double bonds thereby, the oil is healthy for consumption. Elemental Analysis of the oil using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer indicated the presence of metals such as calcium, zinc, magnesium, manganese, iron etc in the oil. Determination of Vitamins ascertained the presence of some vitamins such as Vitamin D, B₁, E, C and A.