LAUSR

The interfacial tension is one of the most important fundamental properties and presents crucial impacts throughout vegetable oil production, application and digestion. In this study, composition of vegetable oil including tocopherols, phytosterols, phenolic compounds, phospholipids, fatty acid composition and other constituents were determined. Furthermore, interfacial tension and its relationship with vegetable oil compositions were analyzed. Distribution and profile of composition of vegetable oil were remarkably different. The interfacial tension results showed physical refined vegetable oil exhibited an obviously lower interfacial tension than chemical refined oil attributed to abundant minor compositions. Moreover, the correlation analysis results indicated that phenolic compounds demonstrated the greatest influence on interfacial tension of vegetable oil against water with r  = − 0.671, p  = 0.009, followed by free fatty acid value, linoleic acid of triglyceride and phospholipids with r  = − 0.639, 0.626, − 0.576 and p  = 0.014, 0.017 and 0.031, respectively. No significant correlation was found between interfacial tension and other minor compositions. These results contribute to regulating lipid metabolism and evaluating oil quality more scientifically.