Concentration of Stearidonic Acid in Free Fatty Acid and Fatty Acid Ethyl Ester Forms from Modified Soybean Oil by Winterization

The concentration of stearidonic acid (SDA, 18:4 omega-3) in free fatty acid (FFA) and fatty acid ethyl ester (FAEE) forms by low temperature crystallization (winterization) was studied. For this purpose, modified soybean oil (initial SDA content, similar to 23%) was transformed into its corresponding FFA and FAEE by chemical hydrolysis and ethanolysis, respectively. In the first study, the FFA and FAEE were used as starting material for winterization and variables such as winterization time, type of solvent, and the oil:solvent ratio were evaluated until optimization of the process was achieved. In the second study, changes in the winterization procedure were introduced to obtain a remarkable improvement on the SDA purity of the final products. Since winterization of FAEE was not efficient due to its low melting points, the second study focused on FFA. The best relationship between SDA purity (59.8%) and SDA yield (82.3%) was attained by performing winterization of FFA with hexane at 10% oil:solvent ratio for 24 h. Scaled-up processes were also performed to obtain 59 g of FFA (purity 59.6%; yield 82.6%) enriched in SDA. The products obtained can be used as starting materials for the production of functional lipids and for clinical trials.