Quality characteristics of soybean germ oil obtained by innovative subcritical butane experimental equipment

Abstract

Subcritical butane extraction (SBE) was used to extract oil from soybean germ and was compared with conventional n-hexane extraction (CHE) and supercritical CO2 extraction (SC-CO2E) methods. By analysing the extraction yield, composition of fatty acids and characteristic functional contents such as tocopherol, phytosterols and phospholipids in soybean germ oil (SGO), the selective extraction characteristics of subcritical butane were evaluated. The results indicate that compared to CHE and SC-CO2E, SBE had no significant difference on oil yield, fatty acid compositions, acid value and peroxide value of SGO. However, the contents of phytosterol and tocopherol in the oil extracted by SBE (2,772.9 and 188.9 mg/100 g) were evidently higher than those extracted by CHE (1,437.2 and 171.3 mg/100 g), with both being lower than those of supercritical CO2 extracted oil (3,982.4 and 227.6 mg/100 g). And, the content of phospholipids in SGO extracted by SBE (23.92 mg/g) was lower than that extracted CHE (38.47 mg/g)....