Background: Natural preservatives can be extracted from spices and applied to palm oil to extend their storage life. The antioxidative properties of certain spices can be utilized in palm and other vegetable oils when applied as solvent extracts, powders, grits, emulsions, etc. Free fatty acids and peroxide value are commonly used as indices for monitoring the oxidation stability of stored vegetable oils. There was no study on the oxidative stability effects of the three selected Nigerian spices. We carried out this study to determine the antioxidant effects of M. myristica, M. tenuifolia and A. danielli in comparison to alpha-tocopherol on palm oil stored at room temperature for 24 weeks.

Materials and Methods: In this study, crude palm oil samples mixed with 200ppm of the grits (0.5 mm) and nhexane extract from each of the three spices were stored for twenty four weeks at room temperature, while the palm oil samples with and without the addition of α-tocopherol were used respectively as the control samples.