Linseed oil presents different patterns of oxidation in real-time and accelerated aging assays

• Real-time and accelerated aging of linseed oils were realized.
• Primary and secondary oxidation products were measured.
• The aging at 60 °C underestimates primary products compared to the aging at 20 °C.
• The efficacy of myricetin compared to BHT has been confirmed in the study.

This study aimed at verifying if the hypothesis that one day at 60 °C is equivalent to one month at 20 °C could be confirmed during linseed oil aging for 6 months at 20 °C and 6 days at 60 °C using the “Schaal oven stability test”. Tests were conducted with linseed oil supplemented or not with myricetin or butyl-hydroxytoluene as antioxidants. Oxidation was evaluated with the peroxide and p-anisidine values, as well as the content in conjugated dienes and aldehydes. All four indicators of oxidation showed very different kinetic behaviors at 20 and 60 °C. The hypothesis is thus not verified for linseed oil, supplemented or not with antioxidant. In the control oil, the conjugated dienes and the peroxide value observed were respectively of 41.8 ± 0.8 Absorbance Unit (AU)/g oil and 254.3 ± 5.8 meq.O2/kg oil after 6 months at 20 °C. These values were of 18.2 ± 1.3 AU/g oil and 65.2 ± 20.3 meq.O2/kg after 6 days at 60 °C.