Extraction of tocotrienols from palm fatty acid distillates using molecular distillation

A molecular distillation procedure was developed to extract the tocotrienols and other minor components from palm fatty acid distillates (PFAD). The effects of feed flow rate and temperature of distillation on extraction of minor components from PFAD were studied in terms of concentrations, distribution coefficients and relative volatilities. The minor components were concentrated in the liquid phase at low temperatures and in the vapor phase at high temperatures. Free fatty acids (FFA) enriched the vapor phase at all of the conditions studied. Other compounds including glycerides tended to enrich the liquid phase at high temperatures. The separation of tocotrienols from FFA approached maximum values only at low temperatures and fell drastically as temperature increased. The processing procedure consisted of three successive molecular distillations at 120 °C, pressure below 1 mTorr and feed flow rate of 0.25 kg/h followed by the molecular distillation of the residue at 160 °C. The final product consisted of 6.63% of tocotrienols, 2.20% of α-tocopherol, 3.94% of squalene, and 4.77% of sterols.