Application of the bespoke solid-phase extraction protocol for extraction of physiologically-active compounds from vegetable oils

Abstract

A possibility of harvesting the physiologically-active compounds from the vegetable oils using bespoke resin and optimised solid-phase extraction (SPE) purification method is demonstrated. The paper describes the application of SPE protocol, which was originally developed, using sunflower oil as model biomass, for extraction of the valuable compounds from sesame, wheat germ, palm, olive and soybean oils. As a result, the extraction of three free fatty acids (palmitic, oleic and linoleic), α-tocopherol and three phytosterols (campesterol, stigmasterol and β-sitosterol) from six vegetable oils have been demonstrated. The comparison between the published data on the amount of the analysed compounds in the corresponding vegetable oils and presented here extraction results confirm that the developed method allowed not only quantitatively extract the physiologically-active components from various vegetable oils without any pre-treatment but also was reproducible, cost-effective and ecologically-conscious as consumed smaller volumes of organic solvents than commonly used protocols.