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  • Selective recovery of tocotrienol from vegetable oils using ion-exchange resins

Selective recovery of tocotrienol from vegetable oils using ion-exchange resins


update:2020/06/16
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Features and Uniqueness
  • Tocotrienol, one of vitamin E, has recovered by the conventional method with molecular distillation from deodrizer distillate discharged from the oil refining processes. However, tocotrienol easily loses its activity due to its low thermal stability, so that its recovery ratio and purity were extremely low. We proposed a novel method to selectively recover tocotrienol by adsorption/desorption using anion-exchange resin at 50 degree C. Tocotrienol is retained on the resin by ion-exchange reaction, and then released and recoverd from the resin by other ion-exchange reaction. Prior to the adsorption/desorption, free fatty acid, a major component of the feed, should be removed by esterification using cation-exchange resin at 50 degree C.
Practical Application

This innovative technology succeeds in solving the serious problems in the current tocotrienol production, the large weight loss due to the thermal decomposition and large amount of remaining impurities. This technology applies to the production of not only tocotrienol but also tocopherol as bioactive compounds s in food chemicals.

Keywords

Researchers

Graduate School of Engineering

Naomi Kitakawa, Professor
Doctor of Engineering