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Title: ENRICHMENT AND FRACTIONATION OF PHOSPHOLIPID CONCENTRATES BY SUPERCRITICAL FLUID EXTRACTION AND CHROMATOGRAPHY

Author
item TAYLOR, SCOTT
item KING, JERRY
item MONTANARI, LUIGI - UNIVERSITY OF PERUGIA, IT
item FANTOSSI, PAOLO - UNIVERSITY OF PERUGIA, IT
item BLANCO, MIGUEL - UNIVERSITY OF CADIZ, SP

Submitted to: Italian Journal of Food Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/11/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The extraction and isolation of high value oleochemicals for the food, speciality chemical, and nutraceutical markets in a benign manner, using non toxic solvents, is desired with respect to consumer and environmental safety issues. Hence extraction processes using high pressure gaseous carbon dioxide and ethanol are particularly attractive for these purposes and have been employed in this study to isolate high value chemicals calle phospholipids from soybean seeds. Extraction using just pure carbon dioxide was first used to remove the oil from the seed matrix by high pressure carbon dioxide followed by pressurized carbon dioxide/ethanol extraction of the phospholipids. The required temperatures, pressures, and sorbents (fine particles having a high surface area) were optimized with the aid of an automated extractor saving considerable time and labor. Then by using the sorbents packed in a column, several fractions considerably enriched in one phospholipid component or another were obtained. The fina process reduces considerably the dependence on unsafe organic solvents and yields extracts that can be further used in both food and industrial application, providing the consumer with a safer and more defined product for personal and commercial use.

Technical Abstract: Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) has been combined with supercritical fluid chromatography in a preparative mode to develop a system for fractionating and enriching high value phospholipids (PLs) contained in soyflakes. Soyflakes were initially extracted with neat carbon dioxide at 680 bar and 80 deg C to remove the available oil. The defatted flakes were ethen extracted with 15 mol% ethanol modified carbon dioxide at 680 bar and 80 deg C to obtain the phospholipids. This phospholipid enriched extract was then delivered to the head of a chromatographic column containing neutral alumina. The modifier was then changed to ethanol:water (9:1) and supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) performed at 340 bar and 50 deg C, collecting fractions at equal volume intervals of carbon dioxide. The SFC modifier was added in an increasing step wise gradient to affect elution of the PPLs. The resultant fractions (analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography with evaporative light scattering detection) showed PL enrichment factors relative to the starting full oil flakes from a 3.6 to 8.1 fold increase, depending on the individual PL.