Simultaneous Recovery of Carotenes and Tocols from Crude Palm Olein Using Ethyl Lactate and Ethanol

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the use of ethyl lactate and ethanol as green and safe solvents to extract phytonutrients such as carotenes and tocols from crude palm olein (CPO) before they are lost during oil refining process. The effects of mixing time (10-40 min), temperature (10-30°C) and proportion of CPO (20-60%) were studied in terms of the extraction of individual carotenes (alpha;-and β-carotene) and tocols (α-tocopherol/T, α-, γ-and δ-tocotrienol/T3) in a temperature-controlled mixer-settler system. The optimal extraction conditions were found at 20°C, 10 min of mixing, 50% of CPO using 3:2 v/v ethyl lactate/ethanol as the solvents. After four stages of extraction, 42.2% of carotenes, 86.7% of tocols and 44.4% of oil were recovered into an oil concentrate of 717.5 mg/L of carotenes and 1496.2 mg/L of tocols.