GB2212806A

GB2212806A - Recovery of carotenes

Info

Publication number: GB2212806A
Application number: GB8727870A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Rofessor Soon Hock Ong; Yuen May Choo; Cheng Keat Ooi
Original assignee: INSTITIUT PENYELIDIKAN MINYAK
Current assignee: INSTITIUT PENYELIDIKAN MINYAK
Priority date: 1987-11-27
Filing date: 1987-11-27
Publication date: 1989-08-02
Anticipated expiration: 2007-11-27
Also published as: GB2212806B; MY103363A; GB8727870D0

Abstract

The invention is for a method of obtaining carotenes and other products of palm fruit, which method comprises pressing palm fruit to separate palm oil from solid vegetable material, treating the resulting pressed vegetable material with a solvent to dissolve carotenes and other soluble products of palm fruit, and thereafter removing the solvent to provide carotene and the other palm fruit products. The solvent used in the extraction may be a food grade solvent such as hexane or the extraction from the pressed vegetable material may be carried out using supercritical carbon dioxide.

Description

RECOVERY OF CAROTENES It is well known that crude palm oil contains about 1% of non-glyceride components which include carotenoids, tocopherols, tocotrienols and sterols.

The carotenoids consist mainly of - and carotenes and are important constituents having pro-vitamin A activity and other physiological activities. The tocopherols and tocotrienols are Vitamin E constituents and are also natural anti-oxidents.

In the past the above-mentioned ingredients of the palm fruit have been recovered from crude palm oil by various means. The palm oil has been obtained by pressing the palm fruit to separate palm oil from the solid or fibrous component of palm fruit. The solid residues after pressing to provide palm oil have been used as vegetable material or have been burnt, that is used as a fuel source.

It has now been surprisingly found that a useful amount of carotenes can be obtained by further processing of the pressed fibres which have previously been treated as a fairly useless product of the palm oil mill.

According to the present invention therefore there is provided a method of obtaining carotenes and other products of palm fruit, which method comprises pressing palm fruit to separate palm oil from solid vegetable material, as is normal in current commerical operations, treating the pressed vegetable material with a solvent to dissolve carotenes and other soluble products of palm fruit, and thereafter removing the solvent to provide carotene and the other palm fruit products. Preferably, the solvent is a food grade solvent, such as hexane, ethanol or chloroform or is supercritical carbon dioxide.

The extraction step to separate the pressed vegetable fibres and the carotene and the like may be carried out at a temperature of from 200 C to 500 C for 20 to 150 minutes.

In one aspect of this invention there is provided carotenes and other palm fruit products which have been obtained from the pressed fibres of the palm fruit.

Furthermore the present invention includes the use of the resulting carotenes and other palm fruit products in food preparations, cosmetic formulations and in pharmaceutical compositions, which includes unit doses formulations of a vitamin or vitamins.

Preparation of Palm Fruit Fibre as used in the Examples The oil palm fresh fruit bunch, typically weighing from 15 to 40 kg is sterilised in the palm oil mill at a temperature of 100 to 1500C for 30 to 60 minutes at a pressure of from 30 to 40 psi. The purpose of the sterilisation step is to eliminate enzyme reaction which would otherwise cause an increase in the free fatty acid content of the oil'of the fruit. The sterilised fruits are then stripped from the stalk, stirred, heated and thereby brought to a suitable condition for pressing; this step is known as digesting. Thereafter the fruits are pressed to extract the oil from the mesocarp of the fruit, and this pressing is typically carried out using a hydraulic screw press. Typically the amount of palm oil obtained at this stage is about 20% base on the fresh fruit bunch.The solid or fibrous component of the fruit is separated from the kernel which itself is usually further processed to provide palm kernel oil. It is conventional that the resulting pressed fibre is burnt as fuel. The oil which is derived from pressing the mesocarp is known as crude palm oil and typically contains 500 to 700 ppm of carotenoids.

The invention will now be described by way of example.

EXAMPLE 1.

Palm fruit fibre from the palm oil mill was packed into a soxhlet and a piece of filter paper wa-s placed at the entry of the siphon tube. The soxhlet together with the sample flask was then placed into the pressure chamber. Small pieces of solid CO2 (C 240g) were placed at the shell outside the glass assembly. The pressure cap was tightened, with the cold finger condenser entering the top of the soxhlet and the needle valve closed. The extractor was placed on a water bath set at 40+ 10C, the water circulating the condenser was maintained at 0+ 10 C using water and glycerol mixture. As the solid C02 melted the pressure rose to 800 - 850 psi and finally fell and was maintained at 700 - 750 psi as condensation commenced.When the extraction was completed (2 hours), the extract collected at the sample flask was then weighed and the carotene was determined.

wt. of fibre used = 3.3 g % of oil recovered from the fibre = 0.099 g (3.08%) Carotene concentration = 4210 ppm % of carotene recovered based on 40 g of fibre = 0.0127%.

EXAMPLE 2 Palm oil fibre (40g) from the palm oil mill, was packed into a soxhlet condenser with some cotton wool placed at the entry of the siphon tube. The reflux was set up using 30 ml of hexane as solvent the reflux continued for 1.5 hours. The extraction was continuous and the extract was collected into a 500 ml round bottom flask. After the extraction was completed, the hexane was removed and the weight of extracted oil was found to be 1.7 g (4.3% of oil recovered from fibre). The carotene concentration of the oil was 4,683 ppm (% of carotene based on 40 g of fibre = 0.02%).

EXAMPLE 3 The procedure of Example 2 was repeated except chloroform was used as the solvent for extraction.

Results are as follow: Weight of fibre used = 40 g % of oil recovered from the fibre = 1.9 g (4.76%) Carotene concentration = 3392 ppm % of carotene recovered based on 40 g of fibre = 0.02% Extraction time = 1.5 hours Extraction temperature = reflux temperature of chloroform.

EXAMPLE 4 The procedure of Example 2 was repeated except ethanol was used as the solvent for extraction: Results are as follows: Weight of fibre used = 40 g % of oil recovered for the fibre = 2.7 g (6.72%) Carotene concentration = 2359 ppm % of carotene recovered based on 40 g of fibre = 0.0157% Extraction time = 2 hours Extraction temperature = reflux temperature of ethanol.

As has been noted above, extraction of palm oil from the mesocarp of fruit provides oil which contains from 500 to 700 ppm of carotene. The same concentration of carotene is also observed in crude palm which is extracted from the mesocarp on a laboratory scale using solvents. It is to be noted, however, that the amount of carotene obtained from the pressed fibre which remains after the extraction of crude palm oil using either supercritical or solvent extraction is 7 to 8 times more than that which is found in crude palm oil.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method of obtaining carotenes and other products of palm fruit, which method comprises pressing palm fruit to separate palm oil from solid vegetable material, treating the resulting pressed vegetable material with a solvent to dissolve carotenes and other soluble products of palm fruit, and thereafter removing the solvent to provide carotene and the other palm fruit products.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the solvent is a food grade solvent.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2 wherein the solvent is hexane, ethanol or chloroform.

4. A method of claimed in claim 1 wherein the pressed vegetable material is treated with supercritical carbon dioxide to dissolve the carotenes and other soluble palm fruit products.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 and substantially as hereinbefore described in any one of the examples.

6. Carotenes and other palm fruit products which have been obtained from the pressed vegetable material which remains after the normal extraction of crude palm oil.

7. The use of carotene or other palm fruit products as claimed in claim 6 in food preparations, cosmetic formulations, or pharmaceutical compositions which includes unit dose formulations of a vitamin or vitamins.