A STUDY ON CHARACTERIZATION OF PECTINASE ASSISTED AQUEOUS EXTRACTION OF RICE BRAN OIL

The Rice bran oil is known as wonder oil because of its numerous health benefits. It has a number of advantages over other edible oils because of the presence of antioxidant known as oryzanol. The rice bran contains 10-26% oil depending on the factors like variety, milling process, and other conditions. Various solvents are currently used for rice bran oil extraction process at industrial sectors. These solvents are carcinogenic and also cause adverse effects to the environment. The enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction process has been regarded as an eco-friendly process. Pectinase enzyme is used to break down complex carbohydrates like pectin present in rice bran and allows easy oil extraction in aqueous solution. The present study aims to perform the aqueous extraction of rice bran oil using crude pectinase enzyme extracted from the pectinase producing bacteria Bacillus paramycoides and to study the oil characteristics. Out of the various solvents used in the study, hexane yielded highest percentage of oil. The oil yield was found to be 49.8% in 6 h. The total activity of enzyme was found to be 11 U/mL/min. 500 Units of enzyme was taken for rice bran oil extraction. The Average yield of oil was found to be 80.5% in 3 h and 76.9% in 6 h. The acid value, saponification value, iodine value and oryzanol content of the oil was found to be11.22, 84.15, 5.0 and 0.05 percentage respectively. The percentage of radical scavenging activity of the extracted rice bran oil was found to be 49.51%. The fatty acids present in the oil sample were analyzed by GC MS analysis.