Evaluation system construction and factor impact analysis of silica‐gel adsorption to extract phytosterol glycosides from soybean lecithin powder

Abstract BACKGROUND Soybean lecithin powders are good sources of phytosterol glucosides (PGs) containing acyl‐sterylglycosides (ASGs) and sterylglucosides (SGs), but PG extraction from soybean lecithin powder is difficult due to the solubilizing property of phospolipids. To comprehensively utilize soybean lecithin resources, an evaluation system construction and factor impact analysis of PG extraction by silica‐gel adsorption was investigated in this article. RESULTS With high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as the main experimental analysis method, software such as SIMICA and SPSS were applied to construct an evaluation system of PG extraction. Different from scores plot in SIMICA for distinguishing samples in chloroform from others, the loading plot and binary variant correlation analysis of all indicators in PG extraction were brought to confirm four evaluation indicators containing PG purity, ASG recovery, SG recovery and phospholipid recovery. In the factor impact analysis, four times elution from silica‐gel sediment was enough to achieve a PG product with least reagent waste, while SPW in petroleum ether at 50 mg mL −1 with 1:3 silica‐gel dosage (lecithin/silica‐gel, w / w ) was then determined as the optimum of single factors. CONCLUSION All studies in this article were of great significance, as they laid foundations for research of PG extraction procedure, as well as PG industrial production, facilitating the comprehensive utilization of lecithin resources. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry