Pequi oil is a seed oil, extracted from the seeds of the ''
Caryocar brasiliense'', which is native to
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. The pale yellow
mesocarp
Fruit anatomy is the plant anatomy of the internal structure of fruit. Fruits are the mature ovary or ovaries of one or more flowers. They are found in three main anatomical categories: aggregate fruits, multiple fruits, and simple fruits. Agg ...
oil is extracted and used directly as a cooking oil.
In Brazil, there are projects among
indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
people groups to develop pequi oil production as a means of economic development.
Pequi oil contains 44.2%
palmitic and 51.7%
oleic acid
Oleic acid is a fatty acid that occurs naturally in various animal and vegetable fats and oils. It is an odorless, colorless oil, although commercial samples may be yellowish. In chemical terms, oleic acid is classified as a monounsaturated omeg ...
, with
linolenic and
stearic acids in much smaller amounts.
References
Vegetable oils
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