Food and Nutrition Sciences, 2018, 9, 937-955 http://www.scirp.org/journal/fns ISSN Online: 2157-9458 ISSN Print: 2157-944X DOI: 10.4236/fns.2018.98069 Aug. 13, 2018 937 Food and Nutrition Sciences Impact of Extraction Method on Physicochemical Characteristics and Antioxidant Potential of Adansonia digitata Oil Mady Cissé 1 , Alioune Sow 1,2* , Patrick Poucheret 2 , Delphine Margout 2 , Nicolas Cyrille Ayessou 1 , Papa Guédel Faye 1 , Mama Sakho 1 , Codou Mar Gueye Diop 1 1 Laboratoire de Formation Continue en Industries Agroalimentaire (LFCIA), ESP-UCAD, Centre d’Etudes sur la Sécurité alimentaire et les Molécules fonctionnelles (CESAM-RESCIF), ESP-UCAD, Dakar, Senegal 2 UMR Qualisud Université de Montpellier, CIRAD, Montpellier Supagro, Université Avignon, Université La Réunion, Montpellier, France Abstract In this study, the effect of extraction processes on the physicochemical characteristics and antioxidant potential of baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) seed oil was evaluated. The oils were extracted, on the one hand, by cold pressing, and on the other hand, with three types of organic solvents (acetone, chloroform, n-hexane). The recorded results indicated that the extraction yield of baobab oil was significantly impacted by both the extraction method and the polarity of the solvent used. In addition, chloroform provides the best extraction yield (40.12 ± 0.607). However, extraction by cold pressure preserves at best the physicochemical and bioactive properties of the extracted oils. Indeed, the pressing oil contains a content of phenolic compounds (0.047 ± 0.0024 mgEAG/g of oil) and a very high radical scavenging activity (DPPH) (31.71% ± 0.61%). For the various oils extracted, the minimum and maximum values were 0.50 and 3.17 mEq·kg −1 ; 56.26 and 99.113 mgI 2 ·100 g −1 ; 1.457 and 1.465; 205.37 and 233.587 mgKOH/g respectively for the peroxide, iodine, refractive and saponification values. The color parameters (L*, a* and b*) of the oils also differ depending on the nature of the organic solvent used. Principal component analysis (PCA) and correlation analysis were performed on the physicochemical properties and the antioxidant potential of the extracted oils. Therefore, the results suggest the mixed use of acetone and hexane to obtain oil comparable to that extracted by cold pressing. Keywords Adansonia digitata L., Oil, Extraction, Biochemical Characteristics How to cite this paper: Cissé, M., Sow, A., Poucheret, P., Margout, D., Ayessou, N.C., Faye, P.G., Sakho, M. and Diop, C.M.G. (2018) Impact of Extraction Method on Physicochemical Characteristics and Anti- oxidant Potential of Adansonia digitata Oil. Food and Nutrition Sciences, 9, 937-955. https://doi.org/10.4236/fns.2018.98069 Received: June 11, 2018 Accepted: August 10, 2018 Published: August 13, 2018 Copyright © 2018 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access