Study on Extraction of Phosphatidyl Choline from Powdered phosphatide by Mixed Solvent

The extraction of phosphatidylcholine (PC) from soybean lecithin with the mixed solvents of acetonitrile and lower alcohols has been studied experimentally. The results show that, the extraction efficiency for PC is much better with the mixed solvents than with the single solvents. Especially when using the mixed solvent of acetonitrile and methanol with the mixing ratio of 4∶1 (volume), both the extraction ratio and the selectivity for PC are obtained as high as 72.8% and 67.8%, respectively, even by one step of extraction. The results also show that water in the solvent is adverse to the extraction of PC.