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Experiment 1: Determination of Acidity Number in Fatty Acid OBJECTIVE
To determine the amount of acidity in fatty acid of different types of oil. INTRODUCTION For the experiment, the types of oil we used was canola oil, grape oil and palm oil. These oils are considered as vegetable fats which do not contain cholesterol compared to animal fats. In every oil, there will have fatty acid which is a carboxylic acid with a long chain of even number of carbon atoms. These chains of carbon atoms can be either saturated or unsaturated. Saturated fatty acids have only single bonds. Therefore, each carbon atom consists of two hydrogen atom and thus this fatty acid is saturated with hydrogen bond. Examples of saturated fatty acids such as palmitic and stearic acids. On the other hand, unsaturated fatty acids have one or more double bonds. The double bond can be converted to single bonds by adding hydrogen atom between the carbon atoms. The double bond between the carbon atoms can occur in cis or trans configuration. Example of unsaturated fatty acids such as oleic acid. In the experiment, we have to determine the acidic number which is the amount of carboxylic acid in a chemical compound such as the fatty acid in the three samples of oil. The sodium hydroxide used in experiment is to neutralize the acidic constituents while the phenolphthalein acts as indicator to a pale-pink endpoint. For your information, the fatty acids is derived from the triglycerides or phospholipids. The triglycerides is an ester that will convert into fatty acids and glycerol as the fats rancidify. In other words, the higher the hydrolysis of triglycerides, the higher the acid number. Thus, the acidity number in fatty acid determine the quality of oil.

Discussion: During the experiment, some observations were made. The colourless palmitic