Water-soluble β -carotene purification, washing, filtration and drying machine

β -carotene is a lipid-soluble carotenoid with the molecular formula C40H54 and a relative molecular mass of 536.88. It is readily soluble in dichloromethane, chloroform, and carbon disulfide. Beta-carotene is an important source of vitamin A in the human body and has physiological functions such as protecting eyesight, preventing and fighting cancer, anti-aging, preventing cataracts, resisting radiation and enhancing the body's immunity. Due to the numerous benefits of β -carotene, its application fields have gradually shifted from the initial food colorant to four major areas: feed, nutritional food, health products and medicine, and have been widely recognized by consumers.

At present, β -carotene is mainly extracted from sweet potatoes and carrots. However, even for varieties with a relatively high β -carotene content, their β -carotene content is very low, only about 40mg/kg, and the purification process is complex. By using microbial fermentation, β -carotene can accumulate in the dry weight of the bacteria to 5% to 10%, thus having significant research significance.

Whether extracting β -carotene from carrots or microorganisms, the current process mainly uses organic solvents for extraction. Because β -carotene has a very low solubility in the commonly used organic solvents in the food industry, a large amount of solvents are needed for extraction. The common extraction method of β -carotene at present is to break the cell wall of the wet mycelium obtained by filtering the fermentation broth, separate the solid and liquid, dehydrate it with a dehydrating agent, and then extract β -carotene with a solvent. After crystallization and vacuum drying of the extract, β -carotene crystals are obtained. This method requires a large amount of organic solvents during the extraction process, which not only leads to high energy consumption and production costs, but also makes it difficult to separate the solvents. The residual concentration of solvents in the finished crystals is high, which may pose a risk to food safety.

The specific steps of the new process for extracting and purifying β -carotene

To address the technological challenges in the extraction and purification of β -carotene, the fully automatic three-in-one preparation process of filtration, washing and drying is simple and feasible, with a large profit margin, easy promotion and broad market prospects. The specific steps of the new process are as follows:

(1) Cleaning steps: Clean the collected raw materials and remove impurities;

(2) Solvent extraction steps: Add organic solvents to the raw materials and carry out reflux extraction or ultrasonic extraction;

(3) Cell wall breaking step: Add 0.25wt% protease by dry weight of the bacteria to the concentrated liquid, stir and react at 35℃ for 4 hours to break the cell wall, and the average particle size of the bacteria reaches 575μm.

(4) Purification step: In the fully automatic three-in-one filtration, washing and drying process, the product obtained in step (3) is separated. The upper layer is the orange supernatant and the lower layer is the filter residue.

(5) Saponification reaction: Add an excess of 0.5% alkali solution by mass to the solution and carry out a thorough saponification reaction to remove the oil. Wash the saponification reaction solution with water to remove the soap until the soap concentration in the washing solution is less than 10ppm, and obtain β -carotene wet crystals.

(6) Purification and drying: Add water, ethanol, and alkaline solution to the crude β -carotene obtained in step (5), stir, and then place it in an evaporator for evaporation to obtain the refined β -carotene. After testing, the purity of the finished β -carotene crystal is 96.6%, and it contains no organic solvents.

On-site photos of the water-soluble β -carotene purification, washing, filtration and drying machine