Enzymatic hydrolysis of crude palm oil to free fatty acids for the development of alcohol-free phytonutrients recovery process

Growing health awareness among consumers has increased the demand for natural phytonutrients. Carotene and tocols found in crude palm oil (CPO) can confer various health benefits. This work explored the use of a water-based approach to produce carotene and tocols concentrates from CPO. Enzymatic hydrolysis was first performed to convert the CPO to free fatty acids (FFA), followed by the removal of FFA by distillation. The addition of antioxidants was required to improve the retention of carotene and tocols during hydrolysis. Furthermore, the use of combi-lipases was found to significantly improve the FFA yield. The FFA produced could be effectively removed by distillation, yielding an oil residue which contained a high concentration of carotene and tocols. This water-based approach offers an inherently safer and a more sustainable process to produce palm phytonutrient concentrates compared to the conventional methanolysis process.