Storage quality and tocopherol content of crude glandless cottonseed oil under accelerated oxidation conditions in comparison with commercial cottonseed oil.

Authors: He, Zhongqi; Nam, Sunghyun; Rogers, Stephen; Pelitire, Scott; Olanya, Ocen

Submitted to: Foods
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/8/2026
Publication Date: 5/12/2026
Citation: He, Z., Nam, S., Rogers, S.I., Pelitire, S.M., Olanya, O.M. 2026. Storage quality and tocopherol content of crude glandless cottonseed oil under accelerated oxidation conditions in comparison with commercial cottonseed oil.. Foods. 15(10: Article 1680. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods15101680.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/foods15101680

Interpretive Summary: Cottonseed oil (CSO) is regarded as nutritionally balanced oil, and is routinely used for food and cosmetics products. The present study was conducted to measure the changes of multiple oxidative stability parameters, spectroscopic features, total phenolic content, and tocopherol composition and content of c-CSO and r-CSO under accelerated oxidative storage conditions. and refined cottonseed oil. The resulting data provided fundamental information on the storage stability of CSO products. Furthermore, the patterns of change of those parameters over the storage period indicated consistently that c-CSO possessed higher oxidative stability than r-CSO. Rich phenolic compounds, especially with the presence of 50-times more tocopherol in c-CSO contributed to the high degree of oxidation stability of c-CSO. Thus, in addition to nutrient values, c-CSO could be applied as an antioxidation additive to extend the shelf life of relevant food products (such as cottonseed or other plant-based butter products). This work also showed the potential of FTIR analysis as a non-invasive versatile technique for evaluating the oxidative degrees of CSO-containing products in a simple and fast method.

Technical Abstract: Cottonseed oil (CSO) is regarded as nutritionally balanced oil, and is routinely used for food and cosmetics products. Autooxidation degrades oil storage quality and shortens the shelf life of oil products. In this research, crude CSO (c-CSO) and refined (r-CSO) were subjected to accelerated oxidation under storage at 60 ' in a convection oven for 45 days. Selective parameters (e.g., acid, peroxide, and anisidine values) and spectroscopic features (ultraviolet-visible absorptivity and Fourier transform infrared band intensity) were used to monitor the changes of the storage quality behaviors during the storage. The resulting data indicated that the specific values and the change trends of these parameters were not exactly same between c-CSO and r-CSO. Generally, c-CSO sample tended to show lower autooxidation degrees than r-CSO during storage. The initial total phenolic content of c-CSO and r-CSO was 36.5 and 24.0 mg GAE kg-1 of oil, respectively. The content of tocopherol (a specific type of antioxidant polyphenol) was 1016 and 23 mg kg-1, in the two oil samples, respectively. Both total phenolic content and tocopherol content showed decreasing trends in c-CSO samples, implying that the high content of tocopherol was a major factor in slowing down c-CSO’s autoxidation process, thus increasing its shelf life. Information derived from this work would be helpful in application of c-CSO as an effective antioxidant component in addition to CSO’s nutrient values.