Policosanol extraction from beeswax and improvement of the purity

Abstract

Policosanol is a mixture of high molecular weight aliphatic long chain alcohols (20-36 carbon atoms). It has been use in pharmaceutical composition and food supplements. This research aimed to isolate and improve the purity of policosanol extracted from beeswax. Triglycerides and other impurities were eliminated from beeswax by refluxing with hexane followed by isopropanol. The purified beeswax was hydrolyzed by refluxing with 1 M ethanolic NaOH for 2 hours. Purification of policosanol was performed by extracting the hydrolyzed product with acetone at 50-60 °C for 3 hours and it was stored at 4 °C for precipitation. The precipitate was refluxed with heptanes followed by washing with hot water. The heptanes layer was kept for policosanol precipitation at 4 °C. The purity of policosanol was confirmed by TLC and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The yield of purified policosanol was 13.23-13.89 %.