Solubility of commercial octacosanol in organic solvents and their correlation by thermodynamic models at different temperatures

Abstract

Octacosanol is a high-molar-mass primary aliphatic alcohol that has shown promising effects in diabetes treatment and in lowering cholesterol. Although this compound has been obtained from non-saponifiable matter of vegetable materials by extraction with solvents, there are no solubility data in the literature. This study presents experimental values for commercial octacosanol solubility in three pure solvents (1-pentanol, 1-hexanol, and toluene) from 298.2 to 333.2K. Solubility obtained in this study ranges from 0.0006 to 0.0602 in mole fractions. In addition, solid–liquid equilibrium results were correlated using four thermodynamic models: Van Laar, three-suffix Margules, NRTL, and UNIQUAC. Results show that high temperatures and the use of alcoholic solvents with the longest carbon chain or hydrocarbons are required to maximize commercial octacosanol solubility. The UNIQUAC model provides the best performance in the correlation of the experimental values; however, all thermodynamic models could be used to describe commercial octacosanol solubility.