Preparation of tocopherol succinates from deodorizer distillate (DOD) with or without pretreatment was studied To reduce damage to tocopherols, the reaction mixture was purged with nitrogen during heating. For DOD as a raw material, the succinylationprocedure for converting tocopherols to tocopherol succinates was optimized in terms of type of catalyst, reaction time, and reaction temperature. Potassium acetate performed best among the catalysts tested. Using potassium acetate, 90% conversion was achieved within 30 min for total tocopherols and within 90 min for a-tocopherol. The optimal reaction time ranged from 60 to 90 min. To obtain rapid reaction and high conversion, the suitable temperature range was 100 -140C. Under optimal conditions, a conversion of 93% was reached For sterol-removed DOD as a raw material, the succinylation reaction was carried out at 140C for 1 h using potassium acetate as a catalyst. When using 10% of succinic anhydride and 1.3% of catalyst, over 80% of total tocopherols were converted to tocopherol succinates with conversion of alpha-tocopherol being highest among all isomers (over 90116). The conversion was significantly increased to over 90% by increasing the amount of succinic anhydride from 10 to13% and that of the catalyst from 1.3 to 2%. Meanwhile, the free fatty acid (FFA) content was increased to approximately 10% after the succinylation reaction.
