ISOLATION OF TOCOPHEROL AND STEROL

PCT No. PCT/EP93/02207 Sec. 371 Date Feb. 27, 1995 Sec. 102(e) Date Feb. 27, 1995 PCT Filed Aug. 18, 1993 PCT Pub. No. WO94/00650 PCT Pub. Date May 17, 1994A process is provided for simultaneously recovering tocopherol and sterol from a mixture containing tocopherol, fats and/or fat derivatives, more particularly fatty acids, and sterol and/or sterol derivatives, more particularly from a steamer distillate of natural oils and fats. The steps of said process comprise: free fatty acids present in the mixture are esterified with a lower alcohol, preferably methanol, 0.4 to 1.6 and more particularly 1 to 1.5 parts by volume of mixture being esterified with 1 part by volume of the lower alcohol, the mixture is subsequently transesterified with the lower alcohol in the presence of a basic catalyst, the excess lower alcohol is distilled off from the reaction mixture after the transesterification, the transesterification catalyst and the glycerol optionally present are removed, more particularly by washing, the fatty acid alkyl ester is distilled off from the mixture, more particularly after removal of the transesterification catalyst, and if desired, tocopherol and sterol are separated by methods known per se. After the transesterification reaction, the alkali catalyst is preferably neutralized with an inorganic acid and the mixture is then washed with water.