Oil production from Yarrowia lipolytica Po1g using rice bran hydrolysate.

The purpose of this study was to produce microbial oil from Yarrowia lipolytica Po1g grown in defatted rice bran hydrolysate. After removing oil from rice bran by Soxhlet extraction, the bran is subjected to acid hydrolysis with various sulfuric acid concentrations (1-4% v/v), reaction times (1-8 h), and reaction temperatures (60-120°C). The optimal conditions for maximum total sugar production from the hydrolysate were found to be 3% sulfuric acid at 90°C for 6 h. Glucose was the predominant sugar (43.20 ± 0.28 g/L) followed by xylose (4.93 ± 0.03 g/L) and arabinose (2.09 ± 0.01 g/L). The hydrolysate was subsequently detoxified by neutralization to reduce the amount of inhibitors such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and furfural to increase its potential as a medium for culturing Y. lipolytica Po1g. Dry cell mass and lipid content of Y. lipolytica Po1g grown in detoxified defatted rice bran hydrolysate (DRBH) under optimum conditions were 10.75 g/L and 48.02%, respectively.

Irresolvable complex mixture of hydrocarbons in soybean oil deodorizer distillate.

Aliphatic hydrocarbons (HCs) can be used as a fingerprint of a given seed oil. Only by characterization of aliphatic HCs could contamination by mineral oil in that seed oil be confirmed. During the isolation of squalene from soybean oil deodorizer distillate, a significant amount of unknown HCs, ca. 44 wt%, was obtained. These seemingly-easy-to-identify HCs turned out to be much more difficult to elucidate due to the presence of an irresolvable complex mixture (ICM). The objective of this study was to purify and identify the unknown ICM of aliphatic HCs from soybean oil deodorizer distillate. Purification of the ICM was successfully achieved by using modified Soxhlet extraction, followed by modified preparative column chromatography, and finally by classical preparative column chromatography. FT-IR, TLC, elemental analysis, GC/FID, NMR and GC-MS analyses were then performed on the purified HCs. The GC chromatogram detected the presence of ICM peaks comprising two major peaks and a number of minor peaks. Validation methods such as IR and NMR justified that the unknowns are saturated HCs. This work succeeded in tentatively identifying the two major peaks in the ICM as cycloalkane derivatives.

Release of phenolic acids from defatted rice bran by subcritical water treatment.

BACKGROUND: Oil production from rice bran, an undervalued by-product of rice milling, produces defatted rice bran (DRB) as a waste material. Although it is considered a less valuable product, DRB still contains useful substances such as phenolic compounds with antioxidant, UV-B-protecting and anti-tumour activities. In this study the phenolic acids in DRB were extracted with subcritical water at temperatures of 125, 150, 175 and 200 °C. RESULTS: Analysis of total phenolics using Folin-Ciocalteu reagent showed about 2-20 g gallic acid equivalent kg(-1) bran in the extracts. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis showed low contents of phenolic acids (about 0.4-2 g kg(-1) bran). Ferulic, p-coumaric, gallic and caffeic acids were the major phenolic acids identified in the extracts. Thermal analysis of the phenolic acids was also done. The thermogravimetric curves showed that p-coumaric, caffeic and ferulic acids started to decompose at about 170 °C, while gallic acid did not start to decompose until about 200 °C. CONCLUSION: Subcritical water can be used to hydrolyse rice bran and release phenolic compounds, but the high temperatures used in the extraction can also cause the decomposition of phenolic acids.

Biodiesel production from rice bran by a two-step in-situ process.

The production of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) by a two-step in-situ transesterification from two kinds of rice bran was investigated in this study. The method included an in-situ acid-catalyzed esterification followed by an in-situ base-catalyzed transesterification. Free fatty acids (FFAs) level was reduced to less than 1% for both rice bran A (initial FFAs content=3%) and rice bran B (initial FFAs content=30%) in the first step under the following conditions: 10 g rice bran, methanol to rice bran ratio 15 mL/g, H(2)SO(4) to rice bran mass ratio 0.18, 60 degrees C reaction temperature, 600 rpm stirring rate, 15 min reaction time. The organic phase of the first step product was collected and subjected to a second step reaction by adding 8 mL of 5N NaOH solution and allowing to react for 60 and 30 min for rice bran A and rice bran B, respectively. FAMEs yields of 96.8% and 97.4% were obtained for rice bran A and rice bran B, respectively, after this two-step in-situ reaction.