Chemical characteristics and fatty acid profile of butterfly tree seed oil (Bauhinia purpurea L)

Butterfly tree (Kachnar) in Indonesia is only used as ornamental plants in garden, park, and roadsides. The seed of Butterfly tree was extracted with n-hexane and physicochemical properties were determined based on Standard Nasional Indonesia (SNI) 01-3555-1998 while the oil chemical composition was determined using GC-MS. The result showed that yield of the oil as 57.33 +/- 1.14 % (w/w) and the chemical characteristic of seed oil include acid value (13.7.8 +/- 0.23 mg KOH/g) saponification value (153.32 +/- 1.85 mg KOH/g), peroxide value (43.51 +/- 0.57. mg KOH/g). The butterfly tree seed oil showed that linoleic acid (28.11 %), palmitic acid (29.2%), oleic acid (19.82%) and stearic acid (10.7.4 %) were the main fatty acids in the crude seed oils. Minor amounts of neophytadiena and arachidic acid were also identified.