Enrichment and fractionation of phospholipid concentrates by supercriticalfluid extraction and chromatography

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) has been combined with supercritical f luid chromatography (SFC) in a preparative mode to develop a system for fra ctionating and enriching high value phospholipids (PLs) contained in soyfla kes. Soyflakes were initially extracted with neat carbon dioxide (CO2) at 6 80 bar and 80 degrees C to remove the available oil. The defatted flakes we re then extracted with 15 mol% ethanol-modified CO2 at 655 bar and 80 degre es C to obtain the phospholipids. This phospholipid-enriched extract was th en delivered to the head of a chromatographic column containing neutral alu mina. The modifier was then changed to ethanol:water (9:1) and SFC was perf ormed at 350 bar and 50 degrees C, collecting fractions at equal volume int ervals of CO2. The SFC modifier was added in an increasing step-wise gradie nt to affect elution of the PLs. The resultant fractions (analyzed by highp erformance liquid chromatography with evaporative light-scattering detectio n) showed PL enrichment factors relative to the de-fatted soyflakes from a 2.3 to 19.9 fold increase, depending on the individual PL.