Abstract:
Over several decades various methods have been used in order to recover
carotenoids from Crude Palm Oil (CPO), which include saponification,
selective solvent extraction, trans-esterification followed by molecular
distillation and further purification by adsorption using synthetic resins,
silica gel, reverse phase C18 silica, adsorption chromatography and
membrane technology. However, it is found that the recovery of carotenoids
from CPO is difficult, inefficient and at higher cost in most of the reported
methods. In this research, carotenoids from CPO was successfully extracted
by using normal phase column chromatography using commercially
available silica gel as the adsorbent. Transesterification, saponification by
10% (w/v) methanolic KOH with and without solidification of fatty acids
were used as chemical conversion methods prior to extraction. All three
methods produced more than 90% carotene recovery. The highest carotene
concentrates was achieved when 10% methanolic KOH was used for
saponification. The optimum solvent system for the extraction of
carotenoids from chemically altered CPO was found as 10% acetone in
hexane. The characterization of the product was done by UV-visible
spectroscopy considering the characteristic absorption bands at 448 and 472
nm for β-carotene. Here, it requires minimum amount of solvent for the
extraction because the first elution component is carotenoid, which is an
advantage compared to the above methods in terms of cost and time.
Therefore, it indicates that the present method can be used as an efficient
and economical way to recover carotenes from chemically altered crude
palm oil.
