A E T I R N A - Glassworks Know-how

by Aparna TS

Coconuts to oil

Coconut is a drupe not a fruit that can float long distances and put down their roots once they are washed ashore, float distributing itself all over the world.

Coconuts - Cocos nucifera L, is a multipurpose perennial crop of the tropics, and is the only living species of genus cocos, the crop provides fuel, building materials, food, water, cosmetics, oil, charcoal, medicine etc, the trees can grow around 30mts and up to 75 fruits a year, they are native to the tropical climate, 70% of the world production comes from India, Indonesia and the Philippines. There are over 80 varieties of the coconut palm in total and about 12 of them are commercially grown around the world, today coconut is mainly grown for oil extraction, the global coconut oil market stood at approximately 2.1 million tonnes in 2023 and is anticipated to grow at 5.9% CAGR till 2034, the growth is due to the increasing usage in cosmetics and various cuisines considering its numerous health benefits. The coconut oil market increased to 4.48B USD in 2023 and is not due to the shortage of supply but rather due to the increase in the usage of the coconut milk & cream as a plant based alternative valued at 1.25B USD in 2023. Coconut oil is mainly exported from India and east asian countries, in India they sell at a price of around 1 USD per liter in the retail market and lesser when exported due to the bulkiness of the quantity of goods procured.

The coconut oil is divided into refined, virgin, extra-virgin and fractionated, coconuts used for oil are the mature coconuts harvested 11 months after flowering, after picking they are de-husked and the coconut water is extracted, following which there are different types of processes by which coconut oil can be obtained.

➽ Hot Extraction Method: In this process the coconut milk is heated to about 100-120deg for approximately 60mins until all of the moisture content is evaporated and the oil is separated, when the milk is heated the proteins are denatured and the milk emulsion gets destabilized resulting in a pertinacious residue and oil, oil is extracted from the residue by the application of pressure, the process is repeated until all oil has been extracted, this is a traditional method, oil is usually referred to as refined or just as coconut oil and has a yellowish color with coconut's strong alluring aroma.

➽ Cold Pressing: In this method the split open coconuts with or without its shell are sun or cold dried and is fed into a machine after washing and cleaning, it can either be, electric chekkus or rotary ghanis, screw based mechanical expeller, anglo-american press, closed or cage type press etc, the dry coconuts fed into the machine are separated into the residual coconut cake and oil, by the application of pressure oil is expelled further, there is a high yield in this process due to the lack of moisture, the oil is filtered as the final step, they are referred as virgin coconut oil.

➽ Centrifuge Method: In this method the coconut meat is cleaned and shredded and expeller pressed to extract the milk, the milk is then fed to the centrifuge and rotated multiple times to separate the water from milk, this is called wet centrifuge and no heat is used in this process, this process retains the highest nutrients and antioxidants and is called extra virgin coconut oil, the oil is milky white when frozen or colorless with very little aroma. Dry centrifuge is the process of using the air dried or sun dried coconut meat and the coconut milk is extracted by adding moisture and centrifuged to separate the oil, some centrifuge process also use heat after the first centrifuge spin to increase yield.

➽ Fermentation method: They are of natural and induced fermentation method, in natural the extracted coconut milk is naturally fermented for 24-36hrs resulting in the oil and the coconut curd, in this process no external ingredients are used as a catalyst to activate fermentation. In induced fermentation the same process is done with by introducing a catalyst, this can be a bacterial or enzymatic source to separate oil from proteins and carbohydrates, they are colorless and might have a faint odor due to the fermentation process, they are also referred to as virgin coconut oil.