Calculation of iodine value from measurements of fatty acid methyl esters of some oils: Comparison with the relevant American Oil Chemists' Society method

A new calculation method for the determination of iodine value (IV) from measurements of fatty acid methyl esters is proposed. The method is based on the quantitative determination of fatty acid methyl esters of vegetable oils by capillary gas chromatography. IV is a measure of the number of double bonds in the unsaturated fatty acids in one gram of oil. The analytical methodology of its evaluation includes the use of rather health dangerous reagents, and for that reason is mostly avoided by laboratory analysts. A calculation procedure to determine the IV of oils from their fatty acid methyl ester composition is in use based on the American Oil Chemists' Society (AOCS) method Cd 1c-85. A new calculation procedure for IV, based also on the evaluation of the fatty acid methyl esters of oils, was developed. The application of the proposed calculation methodology was checked with olive oil, corn oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, and sunflower seed oil. The proposed calculation gave results in better agreement with the Wijs method than with the relevant AOCS method.