Plant oils Flashcards
What are some examples of oily foods?
- Fish
- Meat
- Vegetables
- Plants (e.g. sunflower oil)
- Chips/fast food/crisps
What does saturated mean?
There are no double bonds
What does polyunsaturated mean?
There are many double bonds
What does monounsaturated mean?
There is one double bond
Explain how oils are extracted from plants… (lavender oil)
Steam distillation
- Lavender plants are put in a flask
- Steam is passed into the flask
- Lavender oil and water evaporate
- Lavender oil and steam is condensed
- Lavender oil separates from water
- Lavender oil and water are collected
Why do we cook with vegetable oil?
- Higher energy content
- Contrast of crispy outside and fluffy/soft middle from cooking at a higher temperature so the food cooks faster
- Different/better taste from cooking at a higher temperature with oil
- Food absorbs the oil
(- Vegetable oils contain essential fatty acids which the body needs for metabolic processes)
How do we harden oils into spreads?
- Add hydrogen to unsaturated vegetable oil
- Nickel is used as a catalyst in this reaction at about 60 degrees C
- Reaction replaces some or all of the carbon=carbon double bonds with single carbon bonds
- Molecules fit next to each other better so the forces between the molecule increases and the melting point is raised
- With a higher melting point it becomes a solid at room temperature
- This is called HARDENING or HYDROGENATION
Where can plant oils be found?
Anywhere:
- petals
- Leaves
- Stem
- Roots etc.
How are plant oils extracted mechanically?
Known as cold-pressing where a material is squeezed to extract the oil
What is an example of a plant oil which is extracted mechanically?
- Olive oil
- Coconut oil
(essential cooking oils)
How are plant oils extracted by distillation?
(For oils more difficult to extract)
Material is dissolved in a solvent and impurities are removed when distilled
What is an example of a plant oil which is extracted by distillation?
- Sunflower oil
- Soy oil
How are plant oils extracted by steam distillation?
Steam is passed through the petals and the oils are able to evaporate because they are small and they form an emulsion with water- the oils are then extracted by distillation
What is an example of a plant oil which is extracted by steam distillation?
- Rose oil
- Lavender oil
(floral oils)
What are the properties of saturated fats?
- Solid at room temperature
- (vegetable fats e.g. palm oil)
- Only carbon-carbon single covalent bonds
- Addition of bromine water means the orange bromine remains the same colour (no possibility of free bonds)
What are the properties of unsaturated fats?
- Mostly liquid at room temperature (due to carbon=carbon double bonds in their molecules which stop molecules fitting together well)
- Have carbon=carbon double bonds
- Monounsaturated= 1 double bond
- Polyunsaturated= more than 1 double bond
- Can be hardened/hydrogenated to make spreads
- Addition of bromine water decolourises the orange of bromine (bonds with free bonds)