Comparison of two seed oils used in cosmetics, moringa and marula

Comparison of the seed oil of Moringa pterygosperma (moringa) and Sclerocarya birrea (marula) showed a marked difference in fatty acid composition and oxidative stability. Moringa, with 1000 ppm tocopherols, had an oil stability index (OSI) of 133 h at 110 °C while marula with 1000 ppm tocopherols yielded 37 h at 110 °C. This correlated well with the fatty acid composition of these two oils. Moringa had less than 1% polyunsaturates and marula had 6.7% of these oxidatively unstable materials. In addition, fatty acid compositions of seven species of moringa are presented. All of these species had levels of behenic acid ranging from 1 to 7% with oleic acid levels from 68 to 79%. The highest amount of polyunsatures was found in the moringa species was in Moringa drouhardii with 3.6%.