Fluidized bed treatment of rapeseed meal and cake as possibility for the production of canolol

Abstract

Canolol (2,6-dimethoxy-4-vinylphenol, 4-vinylsyringol), which is formed by thermally initiated CO2splitting off from sinapic acid, possesses a high antioxidant potential. Furthermore different positive physiological properties are described. Due to rapeseed’s high content of phenolic acids, particularly sinapic acid, it is obvious to produce canolol as by-product of rapeseed processing. Roasting of rapeseed meal or cake in a fluidized bed followed by extraction with supercritical carbon dioxide of the formed canolol represents a production procedure which not impairs the commercial oil mill process. This article summarizes results from the roasting process with rapeseed meal and cake in fluidized bed equipments of different design and size showing that it is a suitable technique to transform sinapic acid into canolol. The achieved canolol contents are at 500 mg/kg in minimum, if the material is rapidly cooled-down after reaching the optimal temperature of 165 °C. Further roasting leads to a fast reduction of the canolol content. In addition it could be observed, that the sinapic acid content is not decreasing in the same amount as the canolol content increases. Sinapic acid seems to be “reproduced” during roasting. The reaction mechanisms of the described phenomena are not known.

Keywords

• Rapeseed
• canolol
• fludized bed
• roasting
• antioxidant