Materials and Methods
Two kinds of vegetable oil derived from the fleshy fruits and seeds ofElaeis guineensis (PO and PKO, respectively) were donated by
local farmers in Abatete, Anambra State, while SBO was purchased from
Ose Market, Anambra State, Nigeria.
The vegetable oil samples were first analyzed for their physicochemical
properties and then part of each was modified by reacting them with
excess 1-heptanethiol in the presence of ultraviolet light (UV at a
wavelength of 300 nm) such that they become thioether functionalized
(TF) [12]. In a typical
modification experiment, 100 g of oil was reacted with 30 g, 20 g or 65
g of heptanethiol to obtain crude TF-PO, TF-PKO, or TF-SBO,
respectively. Thereafter, the modified oil (TF-VO) samples were
respectively recovered from the crude mixture (with excess/unreated
heptanethiol) by simple distillation. The sulphur-modification reaction
is as given in Figure 1.