Enrichment of Tocopherols in Wheat Germ by Directly Coupled Supercritical Fluid Extraction with Semipreparative Supercritical Fluid Chromatography

Abstract

Enrichment of tocopherol by coupled supercritical fluid extraction/preparative supercritical fluid chromatography is described. Wheat germ powder is used as the starting material and is subjected to supercritical fluid extraction with carbon dioxide. The extracted oil containing tocopherols is concentrated and trapped on a silica gel column by reducing the pressure of carbon dioxide. The trapped oil is then eluted and separated on a silica gel column of 20 mm i.d. × 20 mm length. The column effluent is fractionated by monitoring UV absorption at 290 nm. With this method, tocopherol content of the wheat germ is enriched 100-fold.