Deacidification of Crude Rice Bran Oil (CRBO) to Remove FFA and Preserve γ-Oryzanol Using Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES)

High content of free fatty acids (FFA) in crude rice bran oil (CRBO) needs to be separated through deacidification. Generally, deacidification process that is widely used are chemical and physical processes which causes the loss of bioactive compounds (γ-oryzanol) and un-environmentally friendly. The liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) using deep eutectic solvents (DES) to remove FFA and preserve g-oryzanol would be implemented in this study. DES with different hydrogen bond donor (HBD) and hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA) with certain molar ratio such as Choline Chloride (ChCl)-Ethylene glycol 1:2 (DES I), ChCl-Glycerol 1:1 (DES II), ChCl-Urea 1:2 (DES III), ChCl-Oxalic acid 1:2 (DES IV), and Betaine Monohydrate-Glycerol 1:8 (NADES) were used as solvent to extract FFA from dewaxed/degummed RBO (DDRBO) for certain extraction time (30, 60, 120, 180, and 240 min) and extraction temperature (30°C, 40°C, 50°C, 60°C, and 70°C) under stirring (200 rpm). Deacidification using DES I for 240 min. and temperature of 50 °C was the optimum solvent to remove FFA (19.03 ± 2.33 %) and preserve g-oryzanol (recovery of g-oryzanol was 51.30 ± 1.77 %). The results also revealed that the longer time of extraction would be increased removal of FFA and decreased recovery of g-oryzanol. The higher temperature of extraction would be increased removal of FFA. In this work, temperature of 50 °C was the best extraction temperature of FFA since DES has highest solubility at this temperature.