Optimization of conjugated linoleic acid production from safflower oil and purification by low temperature crystallization

Abstract

The first objective of this study was to reveal the effect of temperature and time on the production of CLA isomers from safflower oil. For this purpose, CLA production was conducted at different temperatures (80–240 °C) and over different time durations (1–10 h). Alkali isomerisation gave a total conversion of 87.8% under the optimal conditions of 240 °C and 8 h (for maximum beneficial isomers), and produced 41.0% trans-10, cis-12, 40.4% cis-9, trans-11, and 6.4% undesirable CLA isomers. The second aim of this study was to determine the effect of temperature and solvents on the purification of CLA isomers. To achieve this, CLA solutions containing different solvents (acetone, methanol, and petroleum ether) were crystallized at several temperatures (0 to –85 °C). It was determined that although the highest CLA purities (94%) were obtained at –55 °C using acetone as the solvent with a yield of 38.1%, the highest yield (89.6%) was determined using petroleum ether at –85 °C with a purity of 88.1%. This paper presents methods to utilize safflower oil and low temperature crystallization process to inexpensively obtain beneficial CLA.