Abstract

Oil was extracted from Parkia filicoidea seed, an African locust bean seed locally known as Mkundi and its quality was determined in order to unravel its potential as source of edible oils in Malawi. The quality of the oil was determined by analysis of the iodine value, peroxide, saponification value, acid value, impurity percentage, colour and cloud point. The result showed that Mkundi seeds contain about 12.06 ± 0.26% crude oil with an impurity of 4.2%. The colour of the oil was deep red. The iodine (mg I₂/g), saponification (mg KOH/g), peroxide (mEq/g) and acid (mg KOH/g) values ranged from 20.13 to 21.23, 176.72 to 185.13, 1.92 to 2.20 and 3.36 to 4.60, respectively. These values fall within the ranges of edible oils found in the market and, therefore, Mkundi seeds are potentially a source of edible oil in Malawi.

Key words: Parkia filicoidea, edible oils, quality, Malawi, African locust bean seed.