ABSTRACT
The refining of cottonseed oil by selective extraction of free fatty acids using methanol, ethanol, n. propanol, isopropanol, n. butanol and acetonitril has been investigated. On the basis of the equilibrium composition of the oil and solvent phases, the selectivities of the different solvents to extract the fatty acids in preference to the neutral lipids were estimated. It was found that 90% methanol, 90% ethanol and 90% acetonitril are the most selective among the solvents tried. Ethanol is advantageous over the two other solvents in view of its capacity to dissolve more fatty acids using same volume of solvent. The selectivity of each of the different solvents to extract the oil pigments together with the fatty acids has been also determined and compared. Ethanol, the most selective solvent to extract the fatty acids was found also to be the most selective to extract the oil pigments