The correlation of physicochemical properties of edible vegetable oils by chemometric analysis of spectroscopic data.

This work aimed to investigate and compare the composition and the physicochemical properties of 18 different sources of edible vegetable oils. A systematic study on the correlation between composition and physical properties was performed using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy and fatty acid chromatographic analysis. Principal component analysis of FTIR spectra is performed to classify edible oils concerning their physical properties. The results demonstrate the potentiality of the method associated with multivariate statistics analysis as powerful, fast, and non-destructive tools for characterization and quality control of edible vegetable oils.

A study on the removal of prednisone from aqueous solutions by adsorption onto a vegetal activated carbon.

This study evaluated the prednisone removal from aqueous solutions using adsorption by an activated carbon of vegetal origin (VAC). A central composite rotatable design (CCRD) and the response surface methodology (RSM) were used to verify the influence of the parameters: pH, adsorbent dose and prednisone concentration in a batch adsorption process. Among the analyzed parameters, only the adsorbent dose and the prednisone concentration were statistically significant (α = 0.05) and the critical values obtained were adsorbent dose: 1.87 g/L, pH 7.56 and prednisone concentration: 3.66 mg/L with 77.51% of prednisone removal by VAC. The kinetic study of the adsorption of prednisone reached the equilibrium in 4 h. The pseudo-first-order model described adequately the kinetics data behavior. The equilibrium experimental data obtained at different temperatures showed that the VAC has a maximum adsorption capacity of 18.04 mg/g at a temperature of 30 °C. The prednisone removal decreased by the increasing temperature and the Langmuir isotherm well described the experimental data (R² > 0.98). Thermodynamic results shown that the prednisone removal of aqueous solutions by VAC is spontaneous and favorable process.