Separation, Purification and Characterization of Sterol Fatty Acid Esters from Lotus Plumule

Abstract

In the work, a new plant resource (lotus plumule) was used to produce sterol fatty acid ester (SFAE). Acetone extraction and column chromatography were developed for the separation and purification of SFAE. Silica gel (200-300 mesh) was the best adsorbent according to the static and dynamic adsorption experiments. The adsorption of SFAE on silica gel (200-300 mesh) was well fitted to Langmuir isotherm model. The column chromatography conditions (elution solvents, loading amount, column height to diameter ratio, and elution flow rate) were optimized and the purity and recovery yield of SFAE were up to 95.56 ± 1.32% and 95.70 ± 3.05%, respectively. Purification process had no significant effect on sterol composition and fatty acid composition of SFAE. Moreover, SFAE products were identified by UV and IR spectra using standard sample, as well as GC-MS. GC results showed that, ?-sitosterol (49.6 %), ?5-avenasterol (33.4 %), and campesterol (9.1 %) were the main sterols; and linoleic acid (63.1 %), behenic acid (8.3 %), and oleic acid (8.1 %) were the main fatty acids.

Practical applications: SFAE was recognized by FDA as cholesterol-lowering agents, which can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. The demand for high purity SFAE in food and drug industry has steadily increased in recent years, which encouraged the need to find more sources for SFAE preparation. Lotus plumule contained high levels of SFAE, which was used for production SFAE in this study. The separation, purification and characterization of SFAE, as well as the adsorption isotherm models of SFAE purification were investigated. This work provides an economic and efficient method for high purity SFAE production, which gave some available information for the value-added utilization of idle plant materials with high levels of SFAE.

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