How to Make Coconut Oil: 5 Ways For When You Want to Try
In this article, you’ll learn how to make coconut oil.
There are so many benefits of coconut oil. From heart health to skincare to mind care, coconut has so many applications.
But what if you want to make your own? What is the process you need to use? And how are these processes different.
Let’s answer these questions.
What is coconut oil?
Coconut oil is the oil extracted from the kernel of coconuts is coconut oil.
It seems simple enough. But the chemical composition is much more complicated than that.
The composition of coconut oil consists of different saturated fats.
For years, scientists argued coconut oil is unfit for consumption because of this reason.
The effect it has on the body post-consumption is like the effect of the consumption of butter and beef fat.
But what coconut oil is famous for is its direct application to different body parts. This is what makes coconut oil so interesting and so effective.
How to make coconut oil
You can use many different processes to make coconut oil.
These processes include:
- Dry process
- Wet process
- Refined oil production
- Hydrogenation
- Fractionation
Each process has certain advantages and disadvantages. Even the result may vary between them.
Several processes go behind the making of coconut oil.
These processes are each more important than the next and cannot function independently.
There are many different ways as well in which coconut oil can be manufactured.
1. Dry Process
This is probably one of the oldest and simplest ways of procuring coconut oil.
In this process, the coconut meat is extracted from the shell. And it’s dried to create something known as “Copra”.
This is then passed through various solvents and solutions to get the final product, that is, coconut oil.
This process produces the poorest quality of coconut oil.
The least amount of benefits of coconut oil are found in the end product of this process.
2. Wet Process
This process is a little more complicated than the dry one. This is because here the aim is to bring out a much purer product.
The start of the process itself is different from the dry one. In the wet process, the oil is wrung out of the fresh coconut fruit and not the “Copra”.
This is then processed through a series of steps. These steps involve processes such as centrifugation, distillation, electrolysis, etc.
These are done to separate the oils from the other solvents.
Emulsification is formed and separated into its different constituents. The result is coconut oil.
This process is much more expensive but yields a better product. Another disadvantage of this is the yield is less than that from the dry process.
3. Refined Oil Process
In the process, the “Copra” is what is taken and put into a hydraulic press to extract the oil from it. Here, the yield is higher.
This is because almost all the oil present in the coconut is extracted from the coconut.
This oil also has to go through a series of steps to become fit for use. It is one of the latest processes out there.
4. Hydrogenation
In this process, unsaturated fats is converted into saturated fats.
This is done to increase the melting point of the oil because in certain parts of the world a higher melting point is appreciated.
Other than that, saturated fats are deemed to have a better medicinal effect on the human body, although this fact is unestablished.
5. Fractionation
During fractionation, the separate layers of fats are separated for different purposes.
Lauric acid fat is removed for medicinal and industrial purposes.
Other forms of acid as well can be isolated for various purposes in various industries.
These are all the various processes that are used to manufacture coconut oil in different shapes and forms.
Now we should move to the most important part of coconut oil: the applications of this multi-dimensional substance.
