Effect of degumming process on chromatographic separation of carotenes from crude and degummed palm oil

Carotene from crude palm oil (CPO) and degummed palm oil (DPO) was separate d using synthetic polymer adsorption chromatography. Diaion HP-20 adsorbent was used for reverse-phase chromatography and column temperature was kept at 50C. Both 2-propanol and n-hexane were used as the first and the second eluting solvents, respectively. Phosphoric acid was used to remove the mino r components in CPO in the degumming process. The turbidity of DPO was lowe r than that of CPO and the retention time in the column for DPO was shorter (21.3 min) compared to CPO (29 min) due to the removal of the minor compon ents by phosphoric acid. Degumming process caused a reduction of 1.67 mg of total carotene content and 55.67 ppm of carotene concentration in CPO. Thi s is probably due to the removal of carotenoids during the degumming proces s. After column chromatography, carotene recovery for CPO was 30.23% and 54 .82% for the first and second fractions, respectively. On the other hand, c arotene recovery for DPO was 33.91% for the first fraction and 46.25% for t he second fraction. This indicated that the separation of carotene in CPO w as more efficient than DPO in the column chromatography due to the longer r etention time in the column.