Studies of fatty acid composition, physicochemical and thermal properties, and crystallization behavior of mango kernel fats from various Thai varieties.

Mango kernel fat (MKF) has received attention in recent years due to the resemblance between its characteristics and those of cocoa butter (CB). In this work, fatty acid (FA) composition, physicochemical and thermal properties and crystallization behavior of MKFs obtained from four varieties of Thai mangoes: Keaw-Morakot (KM), Keaw-Sawoey (KS), Nam-Dokmai (ND) and Aok-Rong (AR), were characterized. The fat content of the mango kernels was 6.40, 5.78, 5.73 and 7.74% (dry basis) for KM, KS, ND and AR, respectively. The analysis of FA composition revealed that all four cultivars had oleic and stearic acids as the main FA components with ND and AR exhibiting highest and lowest stearic acid content, respectively. ND had the highest slip melting point and solid fat content (SFC) followed by KS, KM and AR. All fat samples exhibited high SFC at 20℃ and below. They melted slowly as the temperature increased and became complete liquids as the temperature approached 35°C. During static isothermal crystallization at 20°C, ND displayed the highest Avrami rate constant k followed by KS, KM and AR, indicating that the crystallization was fastest for ND and slowest for AR. The Avrami exponent n of all samples ranged from 0.89 to 1.73. The x-ray diffraction analysis showed that all MKFs crystallized into a mixture of pseudo-β', β', sub-β and β structures with β' being the predominant polymorph. Finally, the crystals of the kernel fats from all mango varieties exhibited spherulitic morphology.