Extraction of carotenoids from natural sources
AssigneeHumanetics Corporation
InventorsFrederic A. Graves, Daniel D. Gallaher
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Abstract
A carotenoid-enriched fraction is extracted from natural sources, such as carrots, by (i) separating the carotenoid-containing natural source into a carotenoid-containing liquid fraction and a pulp fraction, (ii) adding a carotenoid precipitation agent including calcium chloride, calcium hydroxide, calcium lactate or calcium gluconate to the liquid fraction to form a carotenoid-enriched solid precipitate, and (iii) separating the carotenoid-enriched solid precipitate from the carotenoid-depleted liquid portion.
Claims8
A process for extracting carotenoids from a carotenoid-containing natural source without the use of a hydrocarbon solvent, which comprises the steps of:
- (a) separating a natural source of a carotenoid into a carotenoid-containing liquid fraction and a pulp fraction,
- (b) contacting the liquid fraction with an effective fractionating amount of a hydrocarbon solvent free precipitating agent selected for the group consisting of potassium hydroxide and magnesium chloride so as to fractionate the liquid fraction into a carotenoid-enriched solid precipitate portion and a carotenoid-depleted liquid portion wherein both the solid and liquid portions are free or hydrocarbon solvent, and
- (c) separating the carotenoid-enriched solid portion from the carotenoid-depleted liquid portion without the use of a hydrocarbon solvent so as to form a carotenoid-enriched solid extract which has not been contacted with a hydrocarbon solvent during extraction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.