Lipase catalyzed deacidification of tocopherol-rich distillates obtained from natural Vitamin E sources

Abstract Taking into account the great interest of consumers for high purity natural vitamin E preparations, it is highly desirable to develop an efficient process for recovering Vitamin E from vegetable oil deodorizer distillates (VODDs) with reduction in costs and better use of energy. The process described herein involves a series of treatment steps, namely desaromatization of VODD, concentration of tocopherols by molecular distillation at high vacuum, lipase catalyzed ester synthesis, and brightening of the resulting tocopherol-rich concentrate with an ethanol (96%):water 60:40 mixture which are similar to conventional processes but the purpose and order of execution of some of them are clearly different. Moreover, some treatment steps were shortened or directly removed. By this process a fully translucent and fluid product was obtained which had tocopherol richness near to the standardized level of 50% concentration, acidity around 1% and a content of emulsifying mono- and diglycerides of 20%. The mixture of mono- and diglycerides that result from the enzymatic process could facilitate absorption of tocopherols by the body and thereby enhancing the biological activity of these compounds. Because all these facts the process presented is feasible as a new industrial purification method of tocopherols from VODDs.