Removal of lipid soluble process chemicals from biological materials by extraction with naturally occurring oils or synthetic substitutes thereof

A method of removing lymphokine inducing phorbol esters from lymphokine-containing biological materials selected from the group consisting of mammalian blood, platelet concentrates, white cell concentrates, concentrates of granulocytes, concentrates of monocytes, suspension of cells capable of producing interferon, suspension of cells capable of producing tissue necrosis factor, suspension of cells capable of producing other immune modulators and lymphokines, media separated from said concentrates and suspensions, exudate from cancer cells, exudate from normal cells grown in culture, hydridomas, products from gene splicing, plant cell concentrates, plant cell suspensions, extract of animal tissues, extracts of plant tissues and microorganisms, comprising bringing said biological materials containing said phorbol esters into contact with an effective amount of a naturally occurring oil extracted from a plant or an animal or a synthetic compound of similar chemical structure so as to remove 80% or more of the phorbol esters, the oil being nonflammable, non explosive, compatible with parenterally administered biologics and blood derivatives and pharmaceutically and physiologically tolerable by a human, agitating the resultant mixture, separating out an upper-phase and a lower-phase by sedimentation or centrifugation and decanting the upper-phase.