QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF OILS FROM KERNELS OF VARIOUS SOUR CHERRY CULTIVARS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CRAFT TECHNOLOGY

A topical line of research is developing new technologies and improving the existing ones to obtain and process nonconventional oil-containing plant raw materials (kernels of cherry stones, or pits). This is supposed to allow obtaining oil and oilcake of high nutritional value and biological quality. The paper describes the cold pressing method and ways to improve it. The cherry pit kernels considered were those of the following Ukraine-grown sour cherry cultivars harvested in 2021, 2022, and 2023: English Early, Lotivka (Łutówka), Lyubska, and Podbyelska. It has been studied whether cherry pit kernels from these cultivars and their mixture (25 % of each sample) are promising raw materials for fat-and-oil products. The study provides a scientific basis for a technology of manufacturing oils from kernels of various cherry cultivars of Ukrainian horticulture. The mode selected as the most suitable for stones of different sour cherry cultivars involves treating them with 1:1 NaCl solution (one part rock salt to one part water) for 5–10 min. This treatment ensures the cracking of 90–100 % of stones. Thus, this is the optimum solution ratio to make this operation effective, which gives reasons for the proposed improvement of the technology. Process conditions of cold pressing (extra virgin) have been determined for kernels of various cherry cultivars. The most practical temperatures of wet-heat treatment of crushed sour cherry kernels are as follows: for English Early, Lotivka, Lyubska – 50–60 °C, τ 5–10 min; for Podbyelska and the mixture – 40–50 °C, τ 10–15 min. It has been established that the pressing of cherry kernels is effective at t = 60–70 °C, τ 6–15 min for English Early, Lotivka, Lyubska and at t = 50–60 °C, τ 4–10 min for Podbyelska and the mixture. This operating mode of obtaining oils allows the maximum retention of the initial fatty acid content of the raw materials. It has been proved that oils from the English Early kernels contained 97.4 % (2021), 98.2 (2022), 98.6 (2023) of ω-6 PUFA and 98.7 % (2021), 97.5 (2022), 97.1 (2023) of ω-9 MUFA; oils from the Lotivka kernels – 98.8 % (2021), 98.6 (2022), 97.3 (2023) of ω-6 PUFA and 98.1 % (2021), 98.3 (2022), 96.1 (2023) of ω-9 MUFA; oils from the Lyubska kernels – 94.2 % (2021), 85.1 (2022), 96.0 (2023) of ω-6 PUFA and 98.5 % (2021), 97.6 (2022), 97.4 (2023) of ω-9 MUFA; oils from the Podbyelska kernels – 98.7 % (2021), 98.4 (2022), 98.4 (2023) of ω-6 PUFA and 97.8 % (2021), 97.7 (2022), 97.7 (2023) of ω-9 MUFA. Oils from the mixture of kernels contained 97.1 % (2021), 95.7 (2022), 97.8 (2023) of ω-6 PUFA and 98.5 % (2021), 99.1 (2022), 97.3 (2023) of ω-9 MUFA. The quality characteristics of oils from kernels of various sour cherry cultivars have been studied for the development of a craft technology.