Abstract
In this study, a novel process for efficiently separating and purifying tocotrienols from deodorizer distillate from rice bran oil were developed by combining adsorption and desorption with ion-exchange resins and a simulated moving bed chromatography (SMB). In the vitamin E rich fraction obtained by adsorption and desorption with ion-exchange resins, only free fatty acid was detected as an impurity. The recovery ratios of tocotrienols and tocopherols were 73％ and 100％, respectively and the mass fractions of tocotrienols and tocopherols were 21 wt％ and 42 wt％, respectively. Those results were two times higher than those obtained by the conventional molecular distillation. Next, the purification of tocotrienols by SMB was performed using the vitamin E rich fractions obtained with ion-exchange resins and the conventional molecular distillation. The separation efficiency was improved by 20％ and the required volume of eluent was reduced by 25％ using the vitamin E rich fraction with ion-exchange resin. Thus, the proposed process was very effective to separating and purifying tocotrienols and can reduce the environmental impacts and production cost.
