Solid phase extraction of β-sitosterol and α-tocopherol from sunflower oil deodorizer distillate using desilicated zeolite

Abstract

In this study, the efficiency of using zeolite-based adsorbents in a solid phase extraction (SPE) procedure of α-tocopherol and β-sitosterol isolation from Sunflower Oil Deodorizer Distillate (SuDOD) with­out pre-treatment was investigated. The results showed that 99.2% α-tocopherol and 97.3% β-sitosterol were suc­cessfully isolated as pure fractions from SuDOD, when desilicated ZSM-5-type zeolite (DSiZSM-5) was used as adsorbent on a SPE. A simple and rapid HPLC method for simultaneous α-tocopherol and β-sitosterol analysis was developed and validated according to AOAC guidelines. It was found that the inclusion of a DSiZSM-5 SPE step increased the precision of the α-tocopherol and β-sitosterol analysis. In conclusion, DSiZSM-5 zeo­lite was proven to be an efficient adsorbent which can be used not only for the recovery of α-tocopherol and β-sitosterol from SuDOD in industrial scale, but also in a laboratory scale clean-up method prior to the analysis of α-tocopherol and β-sitosterol.