Separation of tocopherols and sterols from soy oil scum

Abstract

Various separation methods such as solvent extraction, chemical treatment and molecular distillation were tested for the separation of tocopherols and sterols from soy oil scum. End products of these methods were tocopherol concentrates and sterol crystals. In solvent extraction, purity and yield of tocopherol were 21.2\% and 28.3\%, those of sterol were 69.2\% and 2.6\%. In chemical treatment, purity and yield of tocopherol were 11.8\% and 76.4\%, those of sterol were 85.1\% and 34.3\%. In molecular distillation, purity and yield of tocopherol were 45.0\% and 68.0\%, those of sterol were 49.3\% and 57.0\%, respectively. And end products from the methods were characterized by TLC and HPLC. Based on the results of this study, molecular distillation method was found to be more efficient than any other methods tested.