Preparative-Scale Su per~r i tical Fluid ~xtractibnl~u percr i tical Fluid Chromatography of Corn Bran \ IA- * (

ABSTRACT: A preparative-scale supercritical fluid extraction1 supercritical fluid chromatography (SFEISFC) procedure has been developed for the removal of oil from corn bran to obtain frac-tions enriched with free sterols and ferulate-phytosterol esters (FPE). Operational parameters from an analytical-scale supercrit-ical fluid fractionation technique were translated to and opti-mized on a home-built, preparatory-scale SFEISFC apparatus. SFE was performed at 34.5 MPa and 40°C'using supercritical car-bon dioxide. These conditions did not result in exhaustive ex-traction of the corn bran, but yielded about 96 % of the available oil. SFC was conducted in three steps, followed by recondition-ing of the sorbent bed. preparative-scale SFEISFC of corn bran produced a fraction enriched greater than fourfold in free sterols and 10-fold in FPE, suggesting that such a scheme could be used industrially to produce a functional food ingredient. Paper no. J10266 in)AOCS 79,1133-1 136 (November 2002)