It was found that coconut oil was composed of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) which correspond to 64% of total fat and make it unique and remarkable. In addition to MCFAs, coconut oil contains phospholipids, tocopherol and other minor constituents.
Coconut oil is composed of the fatty acids, caprylic acid C -8:0 (8%), capric acid, C 10:0,(7%), lauric acid C-12:0, (49%), myristic acid C-14:0(8%), palmitic acid C-16:0 (8%), stearic acid C-18:0 (2%), oleic acid C-18:1 (6%) and 2% of C-18:2 linoleic acid.
Coconut oil is also referred to as lauric oil since it contains approximately 40–50% of lauric acid of the overall fatty acid (FA) composition. Coconut oil is the highest natural source of lauric acid. The significant presence of lauric acid plays an important role in making coconut oil chemically unique among other oils.
Researches showed that coconut oil is rich in medium chain saturated fatty acids (lauric acid) which allows them to be directly absorbed from the intestine and sent straight to the liver to be rapidly used for energy production and thus MCFAs do not participate in the biosynthesis and transport of cholesterol.
Fatty acids can be classified as saturated fatty acids (SFAs), monounsaturated FAs (MUFAs) and polyunsaturated FAs (PUFAs).
Coconut oil contains 92% of SFAs, which is significantly greater than in other commonly consumed vegetable oils. A portion size of 100 g of coconut oil is found to contain 890 kcal and 82.5 g of saturated fat.
Coconut oil fatty acids composition
