OPTIMIZATION OF SOLVENTS FOR THE EXTRACTION AND METHODS FOR QUANTIFICATION OF VITAMIN E FROM SOYMEAL

Abstract

Extraction of vitamin E from soymeal (the product obtained after oil extraction) was carried out using six different solvents viz., Methanol, n-hexane, 2-Methyltetrahydrofuran, Methanol:n-hexane:2-MeTHF(80:10:10),    0.1 N H₂SO₄ followed by ethanol extraction and Petroleum ether: ethanol (2:1.6) and two spectrophotometric methods: Bathophenanthroline and Ammonium Phospho Molybdate (APM) methods. The results showed significantly higher yield of Vit-E (7.5 gm/100gm) with a recovery percentage of 83.3% when extracted using 0.1N sulfuric acid treatment followed by ethanol. These values were further validated by HPLC quantification.  Whereas bathophenanthroline method was found more suitable method to quantify Vit-E extracted from oil samples using non polar solvents (data not shown). Thus our study helps to select the suitable solvents for the extraction of Vit-E and the selection of solvents depends on the type of the sample (oil or powder form). Further our study also revealed that, methods for the estimation of Vit-E should be carefully selected as the extraction of Vit-E is related to the type of solvents (polar and non-polar) used.