A study on natural luffa seed oil as a potential source of polymers and bioactive compounds
2021
Zhang, Jinlong | Wu, Shanshan | Xu, Runmin | Wang, Chenxin | Li, Chuangye | Hao, Junbin | Du, Xuecheng | Yang, Shangwei | Guo, Yong | Chen, Yuxia
Luffa seeds are rich in resources, although they are considered as agricultural waste and thus underutilized. The main objective of this study was to investigate the application prospect of luffa seed oil (LSO) in natural polymer composites, cosmetics, functional materials, and other fields. The extraction yield, fatty acid composition, bioactive components, thermal stability, and physicochemical properties of LSO were systematically investigated. The results of extraction yield and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis indicated that the extraction yield of LSO is high (36.24–39.48 %) and is rich in unsaturated fatty acids (70.97–75.03 %). Moreover, LSO is rich in bioactive substances (31 types) such as squalene, (E)-2-decenal, etc. These results indicate that LSO has promising applications in polymer composites and bioactive substance utilization. ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, and FTIR spectroscopy analyses showed that LSO contains sufficient chemical reaction sites (e.g. ester groups, unsaturated double bonds, etc.), and the average double bond number of LSO molecules is 2.69–3.29. These results further indicate its greater potential for the development of polymer composites, in particular, more elastic polyurethane foams. Moreover, analysis of the thermogravimetric and physicochemical properties of LSO revealed that LSO has a relatively high iodine value (83.17 g I₂/100 g), and high peak degradation temperature (371.89–422.5 °C) and final degradation temperature (490.36–501.80 °C), which is favorable for its thermal polymerization at high temperature for the preparation of polymers.
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