Purification process of soyabean lecithin by alumina adsorption method

Alumina adsorption method was used for the futher purification of soyabean lecithin, which was obtained by the preliminarily purification of concentrated soybean lecithin using solvent extraction method. Effects of crude lecithin to alumina mass ratio, crude lecithin mass to absolute alcohol volume ratio, adsorption time and temperature on the purity and recovery of phosphatidylcholine (PC) were investigated. The optimal adsorption conditions were as follows:crude lecithin to alumina mass ratio was 1∶5, crude lecithin mass to absolute alcohol volume ratio was 1∶60, adsorption time was 60 minutes, adsorption temperature was 30℃. Under this optimal condition, the purity and recovery of PC were 70.23% and 83.07%, respectively.