Partition of Free Fatty Acids in Deacidification of Macaúba Pulp Oil by Liquid-Liquid Extraction Using Ethanol/Water as Solvent

Abstract

Free fatty acids (FFA) is one of the most frequently determined quality indices in fats and oils industry because it has the economic impacts on production [1]. The FFA in macaúba pulp oil is usually very high (10 to 40%) due to enzymatic activity in the raw material [2]. In this case, alkali neutralization is not economically recommended due to neutral oil loss by occlusion in soapstock. The differential solubility of fatty acids and triacylglycerides (TAG) in various organic solvents has formed the basis of several processes for deacidification of crude oils by liquid–liquid extraction [3]. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the influence of raw oil acidity, ethanol/water ratio, water content in ethanol and temperature extraction on partition coefficients of FFA during macaúba oil deacidification. The macaúba crude oil presented high acid index, about 86  1.2 mg KOH/g. The extraction data for the system macaúba oil + free fatty acids + ethanol + water was determined for oil:solvent mass ratios 1:1. Alcoholic solutions containing 2 to 10 % (w/w) of water were used to FFA extraction and the partition coefficients were determined after 24 hours at room temperature (293 K). The phase’s separation was observed for water content in the mixture above 4%. After solvent evaporation, the FFA in oil phase was evaluated by AOCS standard method. Regarding the high acid oil, the single stage liquid-liquid extraction reduced the FFA in macaúba pulp oil in about 23 % while the three batch stages reduced up to 60%. At the selected parameters (ethanol 94oGL, solvent/substrate ratio = 2), the partition coefficients in the firs stage to FFA (KFFA) were 30.45, 12.00 and 1.95, respectively to high acid, acid and low acid macaúba oils and the partition coefficients to TAG (KTAG) were 7.07, 0.04 and 0.02, respectively to high acid, acid and low acid macaúba oils. These results show the potential of ethanol to vegetable oil deacidification. Besides reduced generation of environmental pollutants, this new approach could also lead to reduction in oil losses, especially for low acid oil.

Acute and subacute (28 days) oral toxicity assessment of the oil extracted from Acrocomia aculeata pulp in rats

“…Regarding the chemical composition, studies have shown high levels of β-carotene (Ramos et al, 2008;Rocha et al, 2013;Sanjinez-Argandoña and Chuba, 2011), α-tocopherol Jorge, 2011, 2012) and oleic acid (Amaral et al, 2011;Mariano et al, 2011) in the A. aculeata pulp performed by high-performance liquid chromatography and open column procedures. Though widely used by the population and favored for its nutritional and medicinalchemistry purposes, little information is available in the literature on the therapeutic or toxic effects of this species.…”

Assessment of the cytotoxic, genotoxic, and mutagenic potential of Acrocomia aculeata in rats

“…ex Mart., popularly known as ''bocaiúva'' or ''macaúba'', is a plant that is widely distributed in the midwest region of Brazil (Lorenzi, 2006). Analysis of the fruit pulp of A. aculeata by high-performance liquid chromatography revealed the presence of high levels of antioxidants such as β-carotene (Ramos et al, 2008;Sanjinez-Argandoña and Chuba, 2011;Rocha et al, 2013), α-tocopherol (Coimbra and Jorge, 2011), and monounsaturated fatty acids such as oleic acid (Amaral et al, 2011;Mariano et al, 2011). Antioxidants are important in the prevention of age-associated degenerative diseases (Barreiros et al, 2006;Gama and Sylos, 2007;Nagaraju and Lokesh, 2007).…”

Improved rapeseed oil extraction yield and qualityviacold separation of ethanol miscella

“…This partitioning had already been observed in earlier studies (Batista et al, 1999;Shiozawa et al, 2015). The liquid-liquid extraction by ethanol has been especially studied as an alternative method of vegetable oil deacidification (Mariano et al, 2011, Rodrigues et al, 2006, Cuevas et al, 2009. These studies were mainly focused on free fatty acid elimination from the oil.…”