Potential Source and Extraction of Vitamin E From Palm-Based Oils: A Review

Abstract

Vitamin E is essential in the human body which naturally found in vegetable fats and oil and their derived products. Several palm-based oils obtained from palm oil mills and refineries were revised in this paper as the raw material for vitamin E. Tocopherols and tocotrienols isomers of the vitamin E content are found nearly comparable with crude palm oil. To obtain the tocopherols and tocotrienols, various developed technologies for the extraction were also reviewed. These include the solvent-based extraction, chemical modification, adsorption, enzymatic process, molecular distillation, microwave-assisted extraction and membrane technology. Each of the technologies has the advantages as well as limitations. Therefore, process design and selection for the chosen technology are crucial in order to determine recovery of vitamin E obtained, time efficiency, cost effectiveness, safety of products and environmentally friendly impacts. A green technology approach could be further diversified and manifested for sustainable process of vitamin E.

Novel simple process for tocopherols selective recovery from vegetable oils by adsorption and desorption with an anion-exchange resin

“…However, the thermal stability of the tocopherols is essentially low and decomposition occurs easily during molecular distillation. Therefore, their recovery ratio is not high and is around 50% (Jiang et al, 2006;Maarasyid et al, 2014). Additionally, impurities such as sterols cannot be completely removed from the tocopherol-rich fraction Martins, Ito, Batistella, & Wolf-Maciel, 2006;Nagao et al, 2005;Ooi, Choo, Yap, Basiron, & Ong, 1994;Ramamurthi & McCurdy, 1993).…”

“…Tocopherols are found only in vegetable oils such as soybean oil, rapeseed oil, and sunflower oil in very low concentrations of about 0.1-0.5 wt% (Carpenter, 1979;Desai, Bhagavan, Salkeld, & Dutra de Oliveira, 1988;Ferrari, Schulte, Esteves, Brühl, & Mukherjee, 1996;Herting & Drury, 1963;Verleyen et al, 2002). To recover these tocopherols, molecular distillation is commercially used as a separation process (Jiang, Shao, Pan, & Zhao, 2006;Maarasyid, Muhamad, & Supriyanto, 2014;Martins, Batistella, Maciel-Filho, & Wolf-Maciel, 2006). The deodorizer distillate is a by-product of edible oil refining and its vitamin E concentration is 40 times higher than that of the crude oils (Ferrari et al, 1996;Verleyen et al, 2002).…”

“…The homogeneous alkali or the acid is removed by neutralization and desalination. To remove sterols with distillation characteristics similar to those of the tocopherols before the distillation, the crystallization of sterols by adding an organic solvent is conducted at around 0°C (Batistella et al, 2002;Jiang et al, 2006;Maarasyid et al, 2014;Yan et al, 2012). However, the thermal stability of the tocopherols is essentially low and decomposition occurs easily during molecular distillation.…”

“…The main separation process is a multi-stage molecular distillation under reduced pressure and high temperature (0.1-10 Pa and 150-250°C). Before the distillation, to remove free fatty acids (FH) with distillation characteristics similar to those of the tocopherols in the deodorizer distillate, the neutralization of FH with homogeneous alkali (Batistella, Moraes, Maciel-Filho, & Wolf-Maciel, 2002;Maarasyid et al, 2014;, Eq. (1), or the esterification of FH with a homogeneous acid catalyst (Batistella et al, 2002;Jiang et al, 2006;Maarasyid et al, 2014;Yan, Yang, Li, & Wang, 2012), Eq.…”

Advances in Genetic Improvement for Tocotrienol Production: A Review

“…It has been shown that tocotrienols and tocopherols constitute 70% and 30% of total vitamin E, respectively, in palm oil. The average total content of vitamin E in the commercial variety of crude palm oil was found to be 600 parts per million (ppm) (12); palm oil is considered to be the best source of tocotrienols (13). The predominant isomer found in plant seeds is g-tocopherol, while a-tocopherol is mainly present in leaves.…”