Pumpkin seed oil extraction using aqueous enzymatic technology and physicochemical properties of the oil

In order to get high quality oil from naked pumpkin seeds, aqueous enzymatic technology has been developed. Single factor experiment and orthogonal experiment were applied to optimize the best extraction conditions. Some of the physicochemical properties of the extracted oil were analyzed. The optimum extraction conditions were determined when proportion of complex enzyme(acidic proteinase: cellulase: pectinase), dosage of complex enzyme, pH value, temperature of enzymatic hydrolysis and extraction time were 1:6:6, 1.2%, 4.0, 48℃ and 3 h, respectively. Under optimized conditions, the oil yield of 38.34% was obtained between in the oil yield of 32.90% and 44.60% using supercritical carbon dioxide and ultrasonic extraction. The oil using aqueous enzymatic technology was rich in unsaturated fatty, phytosterol and vitamin E with the color of oil light-colored and transparent. And other physicochemical properties of oil using aqueous enzymatic technology were also superior to oil using other technologies. These results indicate that aqueous enzymatic technology had a good applying prospect in oil extraction industry.