[en] The aim of this research was to develop a fast and more environmentally friendly lipid extraction method assisted by microwave using solvent based on methyl-tert-butyl ether (MTBE), as one-solvent extraction or in a mixture with methanol and water.
MAE-MTBE-based methods were compared in terms of extraction yields and fatty acid (FA) composition of pistachio oil to Soxhlet and Matyash methods [1], gold-standard methodologies normally used for lipid extraction. FAs, derivatized into methyl esters (FAMEs), were analyzed through a mono-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with flame ionization detector - (GC-FID) and comprehensive two-dimensional GC (GC×GC).
GC-FID was generally effective in quantifying the FAMEs composition of pistachio oil, while multi-dimensional comprehensive gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS) allowed a more exhaustive identification of FAMEs also resolving critical FAMEs pairs under non-polar stationary phase separation (e.g., Me.C18:1n9t vs Me.C18:3n3c)
Combining MAE and MTBE as single solvent extraction provided extraction yields and FAMEs profiles comparable to the established extraction methodologies. When evaluated based on the AGREEprep metrics [2], the MAE-MTBE method resulted significantly greener than the reference ones, highlighting its environmental advantages over conventional methods.
REFERENCES
[1] Vitali Matyash, Gerhard Liebisch, Teymuras V. Kurzchalia, Andrej Shevchenko, Dominik Schwudke; 2008; Lipid extraction by methyl-tert-butyl ether for high-throughput lipidomics; Journal of Lipid Research; Volume 49; Pages 1137-1146.
[2] Francisco Pena-Pereiraa, Marek Tobiszewski b, Wojciech Wojnowski, Elefteria Psillakis; 2022; A Tutorial on AGREEprep an Analytical Greenness Metric for Sample Preparation; Advances in Sample Preparation; Volume 3¸Pages 100045.
