SEPARATION OF CRUDE PALM OIL COMPONENTS BY SEMIPREPARATIVE SUPERCRITICAL-FLUID CHROMATOGRAPHY

Successful separation of triglycerides, diglycerides, free fatty acids , carotenes, tocopherol, and tocotrienols from crude palm oil has been achieved by supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) with a combinati on of a C18 and a silica gel column. The separation was carried out by the programmed extraction elution method. Free fatty acids were separ ated into five components by gas-liquid chromatography; tocopherol and tocotrienols were also separated into four components by SFC analysis , and the pure fractionated carotenes were obtained by preparative SFC . Thus, by using supercritical fluid chromatography, crude palm oil co mponents can be separated and fractionated, based on differences in th eir functional groups.