Rice Bran Oil Extraction with Supercritical Fluid (sfe) to Obtain Enriched Tocopherols and Tocotrienols Fractions

Parboiled rice bran oil was obtained using supercritical CO2 under different conditions of temperature (2°C to 40°C) and pressure (25 to 200 bar). In this study the experiments were carried out with two separators coupled to the extractor. The temperature levels in the first separator were 25°C and 40°C and in the second it was maintained constant at 2°C. The pressures in the first separator were 100 and 150 bar and for the second it was maintained constant at 25 bar. These procedure leads to the precipitation of rice bran oil with different tocol concentrations in the first and in the second separators. The extracts obtained were analysed by HPLC to verify the presence of tocopherols and tocotrienols. Contrary to the majority of vegetable oils, rice bran oil contains higher quantities of tocotrienols, in particular γ-tocotrienol, in relation to tocopherols. Through supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) it was possible to separate fractions enriched in tocopherol/tocotrienol. Rice bran oil was also obtained by conventional extraction with hexane.