Food habits worldwide have increased the demand for oxidative‐resistant oils that can be used for deep‐frying. Oxidative stability in oils can be improved by changing the fatty acid composition of the oil or by adding natural antioxidants to the oil. In this study, the effect of essential oils of seven plants; cinnamon, rosemary, sage, turmeric, clove, thyme and oregano enriched with carvacrol on the oxidative stability of corn oil at frying temperatures were studied. Experiments were conducted by using a PetroOxy device, a rapid small scale oxidation stability test. A central composite design was used to evaluate the effects of concentration of essential oil (X1: 1,500–5,000 ppm) and temperature (X2: 150–180 °C), on the induction time of corn oil. In order to compare the results with the synthetic antioxidant, butylated hydroxy toluene (BHT), another design was made with a concentration range (60–350 ppm) containing the legal upper limit of BHT, 200 ppm. Induction periods obtained from the accelerated oxidation test revealed that increasing temperature decreased the induction time of all the samples. However, the essential oils except for oregano oil had no significant antioxidative effect on corn oil, probably due to a lower content of their active components. The antioxidative effect of oregano oil was also found to be higher compared to BHT. At very high temperatures (e.g., 180 °C), the concentration of antioxidants had no effect on the induction periods.

SUMMARY:Fats and oils deteriorate physically and chemically at frying temperatures due to several reasons. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of carvacrol on the oxidative stability of palm oil during a repeated frying process. Potatoes were serially fried in carvacrol-added palm oil, BHT-added palm oil and a control oil (without any antioxidants). After each tenth frying cycle, several chemical analyses were carried out on collected samples to evaluate deterioration in the oils. The free fatty acid, para-anisidine, iodine, and total polar component values of the fresh oil were 0.080, 2.85, 57.1 and 7.5, respectively. These values changed to 0. 165, 11.80, 46.7, 11.0, respectively for the control oil; 0.151, 11.28, 49.2 and 10.5 for 0.140, 7.19, 51.7, 10.0 for carvacrol-added oil after 40 frying cycles. The results revealed that the use of carvacrol could significantly improve the oxidative stability of palm oil when compared to the control samples. This effect was also comparable to BHT. Using carvacrol in frying oil slowed down the rate of the formation of conjugated dienes and trienes compared to the oil with BHT and the control. The frying process significantly changed the viscosity of the oil samples. KEYWORDS:Carvacrol; Frying; Natural antioxidant; Oxidative stability; Palm oil RESUMEN: Efecto del carvacrol en la estabilidad oxidativa del aceite de palma durante la fritura. Las grasas y aceites se deterioran física y químicamente a las temperaturas de fritura debido a diferentes razones. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar el efecto del carvacrol en la estabilidad oxidativa del aceite de palma durante el proceso de fritura repetida. Se sometió a fritura repetida patatas en el aceite de palma con carvacrol agregado, en aceite de palma con BHT agregado y en aceite control (sin antioxidante). Después de cada décimo ciclo de fritura, se realizaron diferentes análisis sobre las muestras recogidas para evaluar el deterioro de los aceites. Ácidos grasos libre, para-anisidina, índice de yodo y componentes polares totales del aceite fresco fueron: 0,080, 2,85, 57,1 y 7,5, respectivamente. Estos valores cambian a 0.165, 11.80, 46.7 y 11.0, respectivamente, para el aceite de control; 0.151, 11.28, 49.2 y 10.5 para el aceite con BHT añadido; 0.140, 7.19, 51.7 y 10.0 para el aceite con carvacrol añadido después de 40 frituras. Los resultados revelaron que el uso de carvacrol puede mejorar significativamente la estabilidad oxidativa del aceite de palma en comparación con las muestras control. Este efecto también era comparable a la del BHT. El uso de carvacrol en el aceite de fritura ralentizó la velocidad de formación de dienos y trienos conjugados en comparación con el aceite con BHT y el de control. Los procesos de fritura producen grandes cambios en la viscosidad de las muestras de aceite.

The present work summarizes recent investigations carried out about the usage of natural antioxidants in lipid-rich food during processing. Synthetic antioxidants have been used as food additives to retard lipid oxidation and development of off-flavor for over 50 years. However, the literature has expressed safety concerns and health risks (toxic and carcinogenic effects) associated with the use of synthetic antioxidants recently. Natural antioxidative substances from the polyphenols of edible plants are believed to be safer and may provide with additional health benefits and more effective compared to synthetic antioxidants. Due to the fact that natural antioxidants are additives that people mixed with food and consumed for centuries, they are known to be safe by the consumer. Therefore, it is an area worth to investigate due to consumer concerns about health. In the literature, there are many studies showing that the natural antioxidants have important antioxidant effect. Plants (oil seeds, cereals, vegetables, fruits, herb and spices), compounds from animal source (peptides and amino acids), enzymes and some microorganisms are important natural antioxidants. Plant extracts have been widely used to retard lipid oxidation in foods during frying and accelerated storage processes. They were found as strong antioxidant sources due to their high contents of phenolic compounds. There are countless studies about natural antioxidants. However, they have not been investigated completely by means of toxicology.