Colored components of processed palm oil

The compounds responsible for the colors of palm oils at various stages of processing have been isolated by gel permeation chro matography. The isolated colored compounds have been characterized by visible spectroscopy and, in some cases, further fractionated by high performance liquid chromatography. All palm oils studied contained colored compounds of both higher and lower molecular weight than triglycerides. Oils at different stages of processing contained different proportions of these high and low molecular weight, colored compounds. While the color of crude palm oils was primarily due to the low molecular weight carotenoids, the color of finished oils was due to compounds other than carotenoids. High molecular weight compounds were significant, sometimes predominant, contributors to finished oil colors. These results demonstrate the importance of high molecular weight, colored compounds to the color of finished palm oils. Further, these results suggest that the difficulties associated with decolorization of certain crude palm oils may be due either to the presence of high molecular weight, colored compounds or to the presence of precursors capable of generating these compounds during the decolorization process.