ABSTRACT
The consumption of edible oils is extremely necessary, since the main nutritional functions of these oils are to provide the raw material to the production of energy which is used in the biosynthesis processes in the human body and precursors of important substances, such as vitamins and hormones. The main sources of oils in the market are soybeans, rapeseed, groundnuts, cottonseeds, sunflower seed, and palm. A comprehensive study of structural characteristics of oil-bearing materials is important to determine the rational processes of oil extraction. The morphology of oilseeds presents two distinct cellular organelles in the cotyledon cells called lipid and protein bodies which store most of the oil and protein in the grain, respectively. The solvent extraction consists of extraction by successive countercurrent washes with the solvent of the previously cracked, ground, or pressed raw material. The efficiency of solvent extraction is dependent on the thickness of the raw material, temperature of extraction, besides the moisture of the raw material.
