Abstract

                                Silkworm pupal oil was extracted using different solvents from spent driedpupal powder by soxhlet and column extraction methods. The oil contentfrom spent silkworm pupae was maximum recovered from mulberry silkwormpupae (25.90 g/100 g) with hexane solvent in the column extraction method.The better physio-chemical properties viz., density (0.943 g/mL), specificgravity (0.991 g/mL), saponification value (235.147 g KOH/ g oil), iodinevalue (131.653 g I/ 100 g) and free fatty acids (5.057 %) were observedin the eri silkworm pupal oil, whereas, maximum acid number (1.966mg KOH/g oil) and peroxide value of (2.44 ppm) was noticed in mulberrysilkworm pupal oil. Hence, mulberry silkworm pupae were effectively usedfor oil extraction by column extraction method using hexane, and thesephysio-chemical properties of pupal oil were achieved the desired level forutilizing the silkworm pupae oil as commercial utilization.

Key words : Silkworm pupae;Oil extraction;Physio-chemical properties