properties of moringa seeds oil. Acid value was
7.09(mg/g). The acid value was higher than the Codex
standard value for virgin vegetable oils. The peroxide
value was 15.96 Meq/kg. The value was higher than the
codex standard value (10Meq/kg)
for refined vegetable
oil and lower than the maximum value (20Meq/kg)
allowed for unrefined olive oil (FAO/WHO, 1993). This
implies that the moringa seeds oil have lower degree of
rancidity. Also, iodine value was very low when
compared to oil from other oil seeds. Mabaleha et al.,
(2007) reported iodine values of 95.8 Wijs in Tsama
melon and 124.0 Wijs
in Desert melon. The lower iodine
value signifies low degree of unsaturation and the lesser
the liability of the oil to become rancid by oxidation. The
saponification value (180.31 mg/g)
was low when
compared with the values recorded for moringa oil
(190.4-191.2 mgKOH/g)
(Ogundina et al., 2011),
soyabean, Peanut and cotton seed oil (Codex, 1993).
The lower the saponification value of an oil the lower the
lauric acid content of that oil. The lauric acid content and
the saponification value of anoil serve as important
parameters in determining the suitability of an oil in soap
making (Asuquo et al., 2010). The refractive index at 25
oC (1.47)
and specific gravity (0.91) were slightly lower
than the values obtained for shea butter oil.