Phospholipase cocktail: A new degumming technique for crude soybean oil

Abstract

Enzymatic degumming (EDG) is an emerging alternative process for decreasing the phosphorus content, increasing the oil yield, and preserving the oil quality. Purifine® 3G is a cocktail of phospholipases composed of phospholipase A2 (PLA2), phospholipase C (PLC), and phosphatidylinositol phospholipase C (PI-PLC). In this study, Purifine® 3G was applied to crude soybean oil, and the optimum degumming conditions (enzyme concentration, temperature, and water dosage) were determined using a central composite rotatable design (CCRD). The contents of diacylglycerols (DAGs) and free fatty acids (FFAs) in the studied system considerably increased at temperatures below 64 ◦C and enzyme concentrations above 100 mg/kg, while the phosphorus content decreased with increasing water amount and enzyme concentration. In particular, EDG with 200 mg/kg of Purifine® 3G conducted for 120 min at a temperature of 60 ◦C and water concentration of 3% (w/w) lowered the residual phosphorus content to 8.9 mg/kg and increased the FFA and DAG concentrations by 0.17% and 0.72%, respectively. Meanwhile, EDG retained the tocopherol content in crude soybean oil, maintaining its quality. Hence, Purifine® 3G increases the neutral oil yield (FFA and DAG), decreases the phosphorus content, and preserves the oil quality, which make it a commercially viable degumming agent.