International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 7, July-2013 1288

ISSN 2229-5518

Influence of Moisture Content Variation on the

Percentage Oil Yield of Soursop (Annona
muricata) Seeds.
OKORO, Cynthia Kusin

Abstract – Soursop (Annona muricata) is an exotic fruit grown in the tropics. It is a unique kind of fruit with a green slightly hard skin
when unripe that turns yellowish green when ripe. The seeds of Soursop fruit were varied at 4.20%, 8.48%, 12.40%, 15.99% and 19.30%
moisture contents (wet basis) and oil was extracted using solvent method. The solvent extraction method was employed using a soxhlet
extractor, with normal hexane as the solvent. The soxhlet extractor was set up to run three extraction processes at the same time and the
extraction was done in triplicates for each of the moisture contents. The percentage oil yields taking average of the three extracts at the
five moisture contents were 23.41%, 33.87%, 30.02%, 33.82% and 23.05% respectively. Therefore it is recommended that to obtain
optimum oil yield from soursop seeds, the seeds should be conditioned to 8.48% moisture content, however a range of 8.48% to 15.99%
moisture content (wet basis) is suitable for high oil yield from sousop seeds.

Index terms: Moisture Content, Percentage Oil Yield, Solvent Extraction, Soursop seeds, Soxhlet Extractor Variation.

IJSER
——————————  ——————————

1 INTRODUCTION can damage leaves and small branches and below 3 can be
fatal to the entire plant [2].

A
nnona muricata is a unique kind of fruit. The skin is
green and slightly hard with scattered spines when Locally called ‘shawa shawa’ or ‘shawa shop’ in some
unripe, while the ripe fruit has a soft yellowish parts of Nigeria, the fruit in its entirety is used in preparing
green skin also with soft spines. The edible flesh is hard and herbal medicine for cancer and diabetes, particularly to
white when unripe which turns soft, sticky and creamy as it indigenous people in regions where it is grown [1], [2]. The
ripens, with fibrous membranes. Annona muricata has quite a pulp has a mixture of sweet and sour taste and is eaten with
number of ovate seeds with a smooth, shiny texture a spoon, owing to its soft and sticky nature.
interspaced within the flesh [1].
1.1 Oil Extraction
Soursop (Annona muricata) is a broadleaf, flowering,
evergreen tree native to Mexico, Cuba, Central America and Many seeds contain oil, which can be extracted and used in
the Caribbean and northern and South America: Colombia, cooking, as a lubricant, biodiesel as well as industrial
Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela. Soursop also grows in sub- processes [3].
Saharan African countries that lie within the tropics [2].
Oil extraction can be done mechanically with the use of oil
Soursop is reported to be adapted to areas of high press, wooden mortar and pestle and expellers, it can also be
humidity and relative warm winters, temperatures below 5 done with a solvent though the later is quite a complex
process [3].

————————————————
Janet (2001) reported that principally oil obtained from seed
Okoro Cynthia Kusin is currently a lecturer in the Department of
is used as food; eaten raw, baked or used in frying as a
Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering, Federal University of
Technology, P.M.B. 65 Minna, Niger State, Nigeria. Email: medium of heat exchange. They also have a number of none
[email protected]. food uses; lubricants, drying base for paints, boiled with
alkalis to make soap and as ingredients for cosmetics [3].
IJSER © 2013
http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 7, July-2013 1289
ISSN 2229-5518

( )
2 MATERIALS AND METHODS (2)

The materials used for this work includes; round bottom

Where
flasks, mortar and pestle, spatula, beakers, N-hexane, plastic
containers, soxhlet extractor, electric oven, filter paper and Q = amount of water to be added in kg
digital weighing balance.
Wi = initial weight of sample in kg
2.1 Material Sampling
Mi = initial moisture content of seeds in % and
Soursop fruits harvested from Bwari Local Government Area
of Niger state, Nigeria were cut into pieces and the seeds Mf = final moisture content in %.
removed from the pulps. The seeds were washed to remove
The samples were then crushed and
particles of the pulp from them and dried at room
temperature. Five samples were randomly selected, Oil was extracted from the five samples using the soxlet
containing 50g each to be varied at different moisture extractor, in the department of Agricultural and Bioresources
contents. Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Minna.

2.2 Moisture Content 2.4 Operation of the Soxhlet Extractor

IJSER
The seeds were then oven dried in an air tight oven at a The soxhlet was set up with the following components; the
temperature of 105 for 6 hours, after which they were plastic water tank with a control tap, for regulated flow of
allowed to cool and weighed. Continuous weighing was water through the condensers so as to ensure that the water
carried out at an interval of 30 minutes, until a steady weight condensers are always cool, the liquid condensers to liquefy
was achieved [4]. The moisture content was afterwards the hexane vapour back into the extraction chamber
calculated in wet basis using the following equation; containing the sample, round bottom flasks to contain the
hexane, a plastic container to collect warm water from the
(1)
condensers, water hoses connecting the water tank to the
Where Mc = moisture content (%) condensers and also the condensers to the plastic container.

WW =wet weight of sample or the initial weight of sample Three extractors were set up in series, so as to run each of the
(g) samples in triplicates. The liquid condensers were
interconnected using hoses, to allow water from the tank to
DW = dry weight of sample or the final weight of sample (g) flow through them continuously. The sample was crushed
into coarse particles. 5g of the crushed sample was
2.3 Moisture Content Variation
completely wrapped in a filter paper to form a thimble and
The samples were conditioned in order to achieve the placed at the centre of the extractor. 300ml of n-hexane was
different moisture contents, by adding calculated amounts of put in a round bottom flask and then placed in the
water to the samples. After the addition of water, they were thermostat heater set to 40 0C (just when N-hexane begins to
refrigerated in sealed bags at a temperature of 5 for 7 days. boil). As the solvent boils, the vapour rises through the
This was done to achieve uniformity of water adsorption by vertical tube to the condenser, the condensate then drips on
the seeds. the thimble and seeps through the pores of filter paper into
the crushed sample. Once the extractor is full, the solvent
Zewdu [5] reported that the amount of water added to vary flows back into the round bottom flask through the siphon
moisture content can be calculated using equation 2; tube. The process was allowed to run continuously for
3hours, after which the crushed sample was removed, dried

IJSER © 2013
http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 7, July-2013 1290
ISSN 2229-5518

in an oven and cooled in a dessicator and then weighed, at 30 TABLE 1

minutes interval until a steady weight was observed; an Weight of samples taken at 1 hour interval, during oven
drying process for moisture content determination.
indication of a complete extraction. The liquid in the round
bottom flask containing the solvent and the extracted oil was
Treat Rep1 Rep1 Rep3 Total Mean
ment
heated in order to recover the n-hexane.
1 30.110 40.731 41.579 112.42 37.473

2 28.907 39.367 40.347 108.621 36.207

3 28.694 39.045 40.140 107.879 35.96

4 28.670 39.036 40.122 107.828 35.943

5 28.668 39.022 40.112 107.802 35.934

6 28.649 39.012 40.111 107.772 35.924

7 28.647 39.011 40.111 107.769 35.923

IJSER
Fig.1 the Soxhlet extractor set up in series for three Total 202.345 275.224 282.522 760.091 253.364
extraction processes.
Mean 28.906 39.318 40.360 36.195 36.195
The percentage oil content of the seed was then calculated
using the weight loss of the sample.

(3) The table above shows the weight of the three samples
obtained at 1 hour interval during the oven drying process.
Y = oil yield (%)
The interval within which the samples were weighed
Wi = weight of sample before extraction (g) represents the treatments, while the three different samples
represent the replications, used in the analysis of variance.
Wf = weight of sample after extraction (g)
TABLE 2
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Analysis of variance using a completely randomized design
(CRD).
3.1 Moisture Content Determination
Source of Variation d/f Sum of Squares Mean Squares F C A L F T 5% F T 1%
The initial moisture content of the seeds as calculated from
(1) is 4.20%. T re a tm e n t 7 5 . 9 0 7 0.985 0. 0 0 2 5 N S 2.85 4.46

In order to check for experimental error in the calculated Error 14 561.608 40.115
moisture content, the analysis of variance for the weights of
the samples used to calculate the moisture content, which T o t a l 21 5 6 7. 5 1 5 28.376
were taken at 1 hour interval until a steady weight was CV = 17.5%
observed during the oven drying process was carried out. NS= Not Significant.

The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for the results was The ANOVA table shows a non-significant F-test, an
computed, using the Completely Randomized Design (CRD). indication that the difference among the treatment is very
small. Since the coefficient of variation compares the mean

IJSER © 2013
http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 7, July-2013 1291
ISSN 2229-5518

square error, relative to the grand mean, a 17.5% coefficient

y = -0.1742x2 + 4.1065x + 9.6113
of variation indicates a high degree of precision in the 40 R² = 0.7532
comparison of the treatments and a relatively good reliability 35
of the experiment. 30

Oil yield (%)

25
20 y
3.2 Percentage Oil Yield
15 Poly. (y)
TABLE 3 10
5
Percentage oil yield of soursop seed at varied moisture 0
contents. 0 10 20 30
Moisture Content (%)
SAMPLES OIL YIELD % MOISTURE
CONTENT % The above graph of oil yield against moisture content shows
1 23.41 4.20 the line of best fit for the given data in table 3. The coefficient
2 33.87 8.48
of determination, r2 is 75.3%, which is an indication that the
3 30.02 12.40
4 33.82 15.99 oil yield for Soursop seeds can be reliably related to its
5 23.05 19.30 moisture content by the polynomial equation below
TOTAL 144.17 60.37

IJSER
MEAN 28.83 12.07
Where x is the moisture content and y is the oil yield.

The above table show that the highest percentage oil yield,
4 CONCLUSIONS
that is 33.87% is achievable at 8.48% moisture content (wet
basis), this is in line with Kyari’s report that the percentage In conclusion, Soursop seeds can be said to have good
oil yield from seeds is in the range of 26 to 42%, which may potential for oil production, with the highest oil yield
be considered as reasonable oil levels [6]. obtainable at 8.48% moisture content (wet basis) of the seeds.

Kyari’s report though is a contradiction to Bachmann’s report 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

which stated that oil contents of some seeds such as; castor, The Author would like to acknowledge Mal. Saidu Zegi and
Almond, Cotton seed, Hemp seed, Linseed, Olive, Peanuts Mr. Peter, Crop Processing and Storage, Agricultural and
(groundnuts), Perilla seed, Poppy seed, Rape seed (colza), Bioresources Engineering laboratory, for their time and
Sesame seed, Sunflower seed and Tung nuts as 50, 50, 30, 35, technical support provided during this research work.
40, 40, 50, 50, 50, 40, 50, 35 and 20 percent respectively [3].
6 REFERENCES
The table show high yield values within the range of 8.48% to
15.99% moisture content (wet basis) of the seeds, at 19.30% [1] Okoro C.K. and Prof. Osunde Z.D., “Physical
there is a notable drop in the oil yield. Therefore it is Properties of Soursop (Annona muricta) Seeds”,
convenient to say high oil yield from Soursop seeds is International Journal of Engineering Research and
obtainable between 8.48% to 15.99% moisture content (wet Technology, Vol.2 Issue 3, March, 2013.
basis).
[2] Guanabana, available at
Linear regression analysis of the oil yield at different http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soursop.
moisture contents was done to check for if a linear
association exists between moisture content and oil yield of [3] J. Bachmann, “Small-scale Oilseed Production;
Soursop seeds for the given data. Value-added and Processing Guide”, Appropriate

IJSER © 2013
http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 7, July-2013 1292
ISSN 2229-5518

Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA), February,

2001.

[4] F.U. Oziokwu, “Extraction and Characterization of

Soybean Oil Based Lubricant”. AU J.T. 15(4), 260-264, April,
2012.

[5] A.D. Zewdu, “Moisture Dependent Physical

Properties of Ajwain (Trachyspermum ammi L.) Seeds”,
Philipp Agric scientist.

[6] M. Z. Kyari, “Extraction and Characterization of

Seed Oils”. International Agrophysics, 22, 139-142, January,
2008

IJSER

IJSER © 2013
http://www.ijser.org