| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19131 | Food and Bioproducts Processing | 2013 | 6 Pages |
•We describe a simple separation method assisted solvents for the enrichment of arachidonic acid methyl ester.•Three methyl esterification methods were used to process the microbial oil derived from Mortierella alpina.•Arachidonic acid methyl ester obtained better enrichment efficiency and recovery.•This method simplifies the existing separation methods.
An improved method was developed for enriching arachidonic acid (AA) methyl ester from microbial oil by two-step low-temperature wet fractionation. The effects of solvent, operating temperature, and solvent-to-fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) ratio on the enrichment of AA were investigated. The best results were achieved when n-hexane was used as solvent. With operating temperatures in the range −30 °C to −80 °C and a FAMEs-to-solvent ratio of 1:5 (v/v), the proportion of AA methyl ester isolated could be increased to 83.76 ± 2.78% with a yield of 52.89%. The total recovery of AA methyl ester would be further increased to 90.84% by recrystallization of the solid phases. The 20C, 22C saturated fatty acids were enriched by n-hexane or petroleum ether at −30 °C, with concentrations increased 7.5-fold or 7.2-fold compared with their original levels, respectively. In addition, a method that combined alkali and acid catalysis of the transmethylation was the most conducive to the preparation of polyunsaturated fatty acid methyl esters.
