GB739219A - Method of obtaining concentrated monoglyceride products - Google Patents

Abstract

Concentrated fatty acid monoglyceride products are obtained by a process comprising extracting a material, containing fatty acid monoglyceride and other fatty material, with methyl alcohol containing not more than 10 per cent water and further extracting the resulting extract with methyl alcohol containing from about 30 to 60 per cent water. The starting material may be obtained by reacting a triglyceride fat or a fat-forming fatty acid with glycerin. Suitable fatty materials include cottonseed oil, lard, peanut oil, butterfat, oleic acid, stearic acid, corn oil, coconut oil, palmitic acid, tallow, soyabean oil and myristic acid. Preferably a transesterification catalyst, such as monovalent metal hydrides and hydroxides and bivalent metal oxides and hydroxides, is present during the formation of the monoglyceride-containing material. Preferably the unreacted glycerin is removed from the mixture before subjecting it to extraction with the aqueous methyl alcohol. During the extractions it is advantageous to stabilize the mixture by the addition of a fat antioxidant such as hydroquinone or butylated hydroxy anisole. Phospholipids, which may be present in the fatty material to be extracted, can be removed by treating the material with acetone. In an example lard is treated with glycerin in the presence of sodium hydroxide; the resulting mixture was dissolved in ether, the solution washed and dried and the ether then evaporated, phospholipids were removed by treating the ether-soluble fraction with acetone; the resulting glycerin-depleted reaction product was extracted with 95 per cent aqueous methyl alcohol and the alcohol solution was then diluted with water until the methanol was of 70 per cent concentration; the alcohol phase was separated and the alcohol removed by evaporation leaving lard monoglycerides of high purity.