Abstract
The objective of this study was to extract the oil from Camellia oleifera seeds by aqueous enzymatic oil extraction (AEOE). A novel process for extraction of oil using industrial enzymes from microwave puffing-pretreated Camellia oleifera seed powder was described. The results indicated that the free oil extraction efficiency obtained with microwave-assisted extraction was very high, which the recovery yield was up to 55% (dry weight of Camellia oleifera seed). Besides, microwave pretreatment of Camellia oleifera seed increased the tocopherols (by 22.2% – 39.4%), squalene(by 6.3% – 29.2%) and phytosterols (by 6.7% – 14.8%) of the oils extracted by AEOE. Moreover, a very low acid value and peroxide value of oil superior to those of oils obtained by previous works was obtained. From the obtained results, this novel process may prove to be an environment-friendly alternative to solvent extraction.
