Recovery, fractionation and characterization of canola lecithin

The main objective of this study was to refine the canola gums produced during different degumming processes to obtain emulsifiers. This study was also aimed at obtaining canola lecithin fractions enriched in lysophophatidylcholine (LPC). Water, acid and enzymes were used to degum crude canola oil (CCO). The enzyme Lecitase was used to degum water degummed canola oil (WDCO). The canola Acetone insoluble (AI) from degumming of CCO were fractionated by ethanol. The fractions obtained and the parent canola AIs were analyzed for their lipid composition and as emulsifiers. A commercial soybean lecithin (SL) was used as the reference. LPC was enriched from canola AI from degumming of CCO with Lecitase by solvent fractionation.;Canola AIs obtained from degumming with enzymes Lecitase (LEAI) and Lysomax (LYAI) had significantly lower contents of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylinositol (PI) + phosphatidic acid (PA) + lysophosphatidylinositol (LPI), and higher contents of lysophosphatidylethanolamine (LPE) + lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and LPC than that from water (WDAI) and acid degumming (ADAI). The canola AI resulted from enzymatic degumming of WDCO contained dramatically lower total lipid content than those from degumming of CCO. PC was the most abundant lipid in ethanol soluble fraction (ES) of WDAI and ADAI, and LPC was the major lipid in ES of LEAI and LYAI. PI+PA+LPI was the major lipid in all ethanol insoluble fraction (EI) of canola AIs. Canola AIs and their fractions were comparable to or better than SL as o/w emulsifier at original pH. ES fraction of LEAI promoted the most stable o/w emulsion under this condition. At pH 7.5, except for ES of ADAI and EI of WDAI, all the canola AIs and their fractions were as good as or better than SL as emulsifiers for o/w emulsions. LEAI, LYAI and EI of LEAI were better o/w emulsifiers than the other samples tested. All the canola AIs and their EI were inferior to SL as w/o emulsifiers. Ethanol was more effective than methanol and IPA as solvent for LPC enrichment. Temperatures lower than 0 °C and ethanol/lecithin ratios lower than 2 tend to produce ES with high LPC purity.