Mohamed Elwathig Saeed Mirghani

Durio zibethinus (Durian)

The durian, “King of fruit” is one of the most controversial tropical fruit. Vivid and delightful descriptions of the strong aroma, both enthusiasts and opponents add a mystery to the fruit in the western world. This review paper focuses the current knowledge about the Durio zibethinus species and its applications and usage in the nowadays industries and highlighting the extracted essential oils that is important for human health. Researches have shown that there is an increasing commercial demand for durian fruits due to their wide applicability in medical fields, food industry, and in building houses. Therefore, studies are needed to fully exploit this species. The oil extracted from this tree has shown to be of a good usage to the human health. Investigations reviewed in this paper show that oleic and palmitic acids were the main components in all parts of fruits from the spring harvest as well as in the arillus and seed of fruits from the summer harvest. In addition, palmitoleic, stearic, linoleic, and linolenic acids were present in higher concentrations.

Moringa oleifera Seed Oil

Moringa oleifera Lam belongs to a single genus family Moringaceae. It is known as Rawag tree in Sudan, and is widely cultivated in many countries in tropical as well as in many Asian countries. The M. oleifera is rapidly growing tree even in poor soil. Almost all parts of the tree can be utilized for several purposes that help sustain living conditions. The leaves, fruits, flowers, and immature pods of this tree are edible and they form a part of traditional diets in many countries of the tropics and subtropics. The leaves are a good source of protein, vitamin A, B and C, and minerals, such as calcium and iron. The flowers, leaves, and roots are used for the treatment of ascites, rheumatism, and venomous bites and as cardiac and circulatory stimulants in folk remedies. The powdered seeds of M. oleifera are traditionally utilized as a natural coagulant for water purification because of their strong coagulating properties for sedimentation of suspended undesired particles. The seeds were found to be a potential new source of edible oils, oleochemicals, lipids, and lipid-derived fuels. The oil yield of M. oleifera seeds varied from 27 up to 42%. The oil contains monounsaturated to saturated fatty acids ratio and might be an acceptable substitute for highly monounsaturated oils, such as olive oil in diets.

Ziziphus spina-christi (Christ’s Thorn Jujube)

When an old Ziziphus spina-christi tree is cut down for building material and/or furniture, by-products or wastes, such as leaves, branches, and sapwood are inevitably obtained. These wastes are believed to constitute distinct sources of bioactive compounds. For future forestry development, it is important to make the best use of all forest resources, including waste. One of the ways to make use of such forest resources is to use them to make seed oils. This review paper focuses the current knowledge about the Ziziphus species and its extracted oil in human health. Parts such as leaf, fruit, seed, bark, and root of this species hold an enormous position in the innovation of new therapeutic agents for drug development. There is an increasing commercial demand for Ziziphus due to their wide applicability in human health. Therefore, studies are needed to fully exploit this species.

Unconventional Oils From Annuals, Herbs, and Vegetables

The simultaneous increase in human population has brought about the demand and additionally the cost of edible oils, prompting the search for alternative unconventional sources of oils, especially in the developing countries. There are several un- or underexplored plant seeds rich in oil reasonable for consumable or industrial purposes. Huge numbers of them are rich in polyunsaturated essential fatty acids, which build up their utility as “healthy oils.” Some agrowaste items, for example, rice bran, have picked up significance as a potential source of edible oil. Hereditary modification has made ready for expanding the oil yields and enhancing the fatty acid profiles of traditional as well as unconventional oilseeds. Some of these unconventional oils may have magnificent potential for medicinal and therapeutic uses, regardless of the fact that their low oil contents do not promote commercial production as edible oils.

Nephelium lappaceum L. Rambutan Kernel Oil

The rambutan tree Nephelium lappaceum is an evergreen tree, growing to a height of 20 m. The leaves are dark green in color, flowers are greenish white, fragrant. Fruit has thin reddish or orange-yellow rind covered with thick, coarse hairs or long, soft spines on the surface. The fruits are deseeded during processing and the seeds remain as a wasted by-product of the canning industry. The plant contains a large variety of substances, such as polyphenols, carotene, tocopherol, vitamin C, vitamin E, xanthophylls, and tannins. The weight of the seed constitutes about 5.6%–7.4% of the whole fruit. The seed contains 11.9%–14.1% protein, 37.1%–38.9% crude fat, 2.8%–6.6% crude fiber, 2.6–2.9 ash on dry weight basis. The oil extracts contained mainly palmitic (7.39%–10.33%), stearic (12.21%–16.58%), arachidic (12.34%–16.22%), and behenic (6.53%–8.91%) as SFA, oleic (50.17%–52.18%) as MUFA, and linolenic (2.02%–3.04%) as PUFA.

Chapter 26 – The Potential of Sodom Apple (Calotropis procera and Calotropis gigantea) Seed Oil

The plant is green throughout the year and has green hollow globes, but the flesh contains a milky sap that is extremely bitter and turns into a gluey coating resistant to soap. The fruits are green, turn to light yellow, and dry upon maturity and fruiting takes place throughout the year. The fruit contains numerous seeds, which are light, flat, brown, and attached to long white silky hair (pappus) at one end that help the seeds to fly from one place to another spreading the plant. The leaves are smoked to cure asthma and cough. It is poisonous. The latex is commonly used for ringworm, dog bitten wounds, and skin diseases. Latex is used in the tanning industry. The oil content is 24%–34%, having a bright yellow color. The oil was characterized for fatty acid composition. Sodom apple seed oil is a new unconventional vegetable oil found to be useful for soap making, cosmetics, and other industrial applications, such as tanning industry.

Principles of Oil Extraction, Processing, and Oil Composition

The extraction of oil from an oil-bearing commodity involves some steps, depending on the particular commodity to be processed, the scale of operation, and the technical options available to the processor. Many steps of oil processing are involved, for example, seed pretreatment which deals with the stages prior to the extraction stage, such as cleaning, crushing, and scorching; extraction, this step involves the separation of the raw material into oil and residue (cake); and finally refining step. Postextraction treatments involve the packaging of the oil and cake for marketing. Five fundamental specialized alternatives exist for oil extraction: hot water floatation, ghanis, manual presses, powered expellers, and solvent extraction. One of the more established techniques for oil extraction is utilizing mechanical intends to squeeze oil out of the seeds of oil products, which might possibly be filtered a short time later. While the utilization of heat mixed with pressure can possibly separate moderately more oil; it likewise can possibly degrade the oil’s quality and modify other attractive attributes, similar to taste, odor, color, and texture.

Tessaratoma papillosa Longan Stink Bug

Tessaratoma papillosa longan stink bug (Tessaratomidae) is ovate to elongate-ovate. The size is from 6 to 7 mm to the large one at 43 to 45 mm. The carbohydrate content of longan stink bug was reported as 6.71%. The protein content of longan stink bug is 50.54% which is very high when compared with other conventional sources. A total of 10 fatty acid methyl esters were identified from the unprocessed and the traditionally processed stink bug samples, of these, seven were unsaturated fatty acid derivatives while the remaining three were saturated fatty acid derivatives. The percentage of oil content of longan stink bug was 23.5%, with C20:4 n –6 as the major fatty acid representing 46.7%, followed by C18:0 as 41.0%. The results of this study confirm the fact that insects are indeed a good source of protein and other nutrients. Longan stink bug is used in cooking, roasting, curry, and chilli pasting.

Sesamum alatum (Thonn) Winged-Seed Sesame

Sesamum alatum belongs to the family Pedaliaceae; it is an erect annual herb up to 1.5-m tall; the fruit is a narrowly obconical capsule up to 5 × 0.7 cm. Seeds are 2.5 × 1.5 mm, pale to dark brown. Seed oil content is 28.9%. The oil contained 10.9% palmitic acid, 45.1% oleic acid, and 36.3% linoleic acid, with traces of linolenic acid. The tocopherol content amounted to 26.4 mg/100 g oil and gamma tocopherol was the predominant tocopherol; it represents about 21.4 mg/100 g, followed by α-T and β-T, which represented about 1.9 and 1.4 mg/100 g, respectively. Three new saponins, alatoside, with a 18,19-secours-12-ene skeleton were isolated from the aerial parts. In addition, verbascoside and two cyclohexylethanol derivatives, rengyol (2a) and isorengyol (3a), were isolated and identified. S. alatum has renal protective and antidiabetic activities.

Schistocerca gregaria (Desert Locust) and Locusta migratoria (Migratory Locust)

Schistocerca gregaria , the desert locust is potentially the most dangerous of the locust pests because of the ability of swarms to fly rapidly across great distances. It has two to five generations per year. The migratory locust, sometimes classified into up to 10 subspecies, swarms in Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, but has become rare in Europe. A single swarm can cover up to 1200 km 2 and can contain between 40 and 80 million locusts per square kilometer. Locusts are consumed worldwide for human food in Africa, South America, and Asia, both in rural and urban areas. Commercial farming of locusts for food and feed is developing in Southeast Asia and rice field grasshoppers are harvested for food in Japan, China, and Korea. Proximate composition of locust meal contains a crude protein of about 52.3%, oil of 12.0%, fiber about 19.0%, and 10.0% as ash content on dry matter basis. Desert locust has great potential as a protein source in broiler diets without causing any physiological disorder as reflected in the hematological analysis. Phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositols, phosphatidylserine, sphingomyelin, and cardiolipins are present in locust.