Application of the bespoke solid-phase extraction protocol for extraction of physiologically-active compounds from...

Area of Science:

• Agricultural and Food Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry

Background:

• Vegetable oils are rich sources of physiologically active compounds.
• Efficient extraction methods are needed to isolate these valuable components for various applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and demonstrate an optimized solid-phase extraction (SPE) protocol for harvesting physiologically active compounds from diverse vegetable oils.
• To evaluate the method's efficiency, reproducibility, cost-effectiveness, and environmental impact.

Main Methods:

• Application of a bespoke resin and optimized SPE protocol.
• Extraction of compounds from sunflower, sesame, wheat germ, palm, olive, and soybean oils.
• Analysis of free fatty acids, α-tocopherol, and phytosterols.

Main Results:

• Successfully extracted palmitic, oleic, and linoleic acids, α-tocopherol, campesterol, stigmasterol, and β-sitosterol from six different vegetable oils.
• The developed SPE method demonstrated quantitative extraction without pre-treatment.
• The method proved to be reproducible, cost-effective, and consumed less organic solvent compared to conventional protocols.

Conclusions:

• The optimized SPE method provides an efficient, reproducible, and sustainable approach for isolating valuable physiologically active compounds from vegetable oils.
• This technique offers a cost-effective and ecologically conscious alternative to existing extraction protocols, reducing organic solvent consumption.