ABSTRACT
Introduction
Molecular distillation (MD) is a physical separation method that was developed for several applications in petrochemical, food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Early industrial applications were most prominent in the petrochemical industry and in the food industry for vegetable oil refinement. During the past two decades, MD has gained a renewed attention and its applications have expanded to include purification and enrichment of bioactive compounds from natural product extracts and in nutraceuticals production.
Objectives
This review highlights, from a chemical perispective, applications and potential future MD development in the fields of pharmaceutics and natural product chemistry.
Literature review
A brief summary to outline the MD concept and the factors to be considered in designing efficient MD experiments is provided. Recent MD applications in the production and refinement of raw materials to be used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and nutraceutical industries are analyzed. This review further discusses future development in MD to expand its appliaction for refinement and purification of fixed oils, essential oils and plant extracts.
ABBREVIATIONS
ANN: Artificial neural network
DAG: Diacylglycerides
DHA: Docosahexaenoic acid
DPA: Docosapentaenoic acid
EO: Essential oil
FFA: Free fatty acids
MAG: Monoacylglycerides
MD: Molecular distillation
ODD: Oil deodorizer distillate
PUFA: Poly unsaturated fatty acids
RSM: Response surface methodology
SODD: soybean oil deodorizer distillate
TAG: Triacylglycerides