Pressurized Liquid Extraction of Polar and Nonpolar Lipids in Corn and Oats with Hexane, Methylene Chloride, Isopropanol, and Ethanol

Samples of freshly ground corn kernels and freshly ground rolled oats were extracted via pressurized liquid extraction (accelerated solvent extraction) using four different organic solvents [hexane, methylene chloride (also known as dichloromethane), isopropanol, and ethanol] at two temperatures (40 and 100°C). Lipid yields varied from 2.9 to 5.9 wt% for ground corn and from 5. 5 to 6.7 wt% for ground oats. With ground corn, more lipid was extracted as solvent polarity was increased, and for each individual solvent, more lipid was extracted at 100°C than at 40°C. With ground oats, the same temperature effect was observed, but the solvent polarity effect was more complex. For both corn and oats, methylene chloride extracted the highest levels of each of the nonpolar lipid classes. In general, for both corn and oats, increasing solvent polarity resulted in increasing yields of polar lipids, and for each solvent, more of each lipid class was extracted at 100°C, than at 40°C. Among the lipids in corn extracts, the phytosterols may be the most valuable, and total phytosterols ranged from about 0.6 wt% in the hot ethanol extracts to about 2.1 wt% in the hot hexane and methylene chloride extracts. Total phytosterols in all oat extracts were about 0.1 wt%. Digalactosyldiacylglycerol was the most abundant polar lipid in the oat extracts; its levels ranged from 1.6 wt% in the cold hexane extracts to 4.3 wt% in the hot ethanol extracts.