Bees wax and its unsaponifiables as natural preservative for butter and cottonseed oils

Abstract

Simple model systems consisting of butter oil or refined cottonseed oil mixed with melted bees wax and its unsaponifiables were designated to study their hydrolytic and oxidative rancidity during storage. Whole bees wax at 0,5 and 1% levels possessed significant pro-hydrolytic activity whilst its unsaponifiables at 0,25 and 0,5% exhibited antihydrolytic effect on butter oil. The addition of whole bees wax at 0,5 and 1 % caused no effect on peroxide and thiobarbituric acid values of butter oil. However, bees wax unsaponifiables significantly reduced both peroxide and thiobarbituric acid values of stored butter oil. Bees wax unsaponifiables added to refined cottonseed oil had no effect on the acid value, whilst whole bees wax possessed significant prohydrolytic activity. The data for peroxide and thiobarbituric acid values of refined cottonseed oil demonstrated that both whole bees wax and its unsaponifiables had approximately the same antioxidant efficacy. The effectiveness of the added materials on the secondary oxidation products of refined cottonseed oil can be ranked according to its inhibition activity as follows: BHT (200 ppm) > bees wax (1%) > bees wax (0,5%) > bees wax unsaponifiables (0,5%) > bees wax unsaponifiables (0,25%) > control.