Quantitation of steryl ferulate and p-coumarate esters from corn and rice

The principal steryl ferulate and p-coumarate esters of different fractions from processed corn brans and corn oils, unrefined and refined, and from rice bran and rice bran oil were quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography. The results show that hexane-extracted corn oils yield more than five times the amount of esters compared to expeller processed oils. The yields of esters from bran and related products ranged from 0.07 to 0.54 mg/g of bran. Unrefined corn oils had levels from 0.18 to 8.6 mg/g for oil from hexane-extracted bran. By comparison, rice bran had ester levels of 3.4 mg/g of bran, and rice bran oil had levels of 15.7 mg/g of oil. The predominant esters from corn were sitostanyl and campestanyl ferulate, and sitostanyl and campestanyl p-coumarate. The principal esters from rice bran were cycloartenyl, 24-methylenecycloartanyl, and campesteryl ferulate. Rice bran oils had low levels of 24-methylenecycloartanyl but high levels of cyclobranol esters. The data presented provide a direct comparison of steryl ferulate and p-coumarate levels in the two cereals, and will aid in selecting the most suitable sources for the isolation of these compounds from corn products.