Abstract: Solvent extraction was used for the extraction of volatile oil from Macadamia nut from Yunnan in this study, and extraction conditions such as solvent type, the boiling range of petroleum ether, liquid/material ratio, extraction time were optimized by single factor and orthogonal array design methods. The optimum extraction conditions were as follows: extraction solvent, petroleum ether of boiling range of 60 to 90 ℃; extraction time, 6 h; and liquid/material ratio, 16:1 (mL/g), and the maximum oil yield was up to 72.83% under the optimized conditions. The oil obtained was determined to have 0.9108 relative density (20 ℃), 1.4661 refractive index, 1.603 mg KOH/g acid value, 198.22 mg KOH/g saponification value. The GC-MS fatty acid composition analysis showed that Macadamia nut oil was stable and contained abundant amounts of unsaturated fatty acids and consequently had high nutritional value.

Key words: Macadamia nuts, oil, extraction, physicochemical property