A simple and rapid method for the isolation of cholesterol from spinal cord of cattle

A method is described for the large scale isolation of cholesterol from cattle spinal cord. Cholesterol is released from the lipo-protein by drying the wet tissues with calcium oxide. This treatment appears to prevent the extraction of polar lipids with acetone, which reduces the lipophylic properties of the solution and thus provides a method for almost exclusive extraction of cholesterol. The further role of calcium oxide is also discussed. The method evolved is simple, rapid and eliminates several previously required steps.