The Isolation of Yellow Mustard Oil Using Water and Cyclic Ethers

An aqueous extraction process (AEP) was developed for dehulled yellow mustard flour with the aim of producing yellow mustard oil for industrial applications, as a by-product of food protein production. During AEP, most of the oil extracted was bound in a stable oil-in-water emulsion that must be destabilized to recover free oil. The oil distribution after aqueous extraction and the composition of the emulsion produced were determined. The emulsion was solubilized in organic solvents including tetrahydrofuran (THF) and 1,4-dioxane to fully recover the oil in a single-phase oil–solvent-water miscella. Over 97 and 95% of the oil in the emulsion was successfully recovered using 4:1 THF:oil and 9:1 dioxane:oil weight ratios, respectively. The oil recovery from the emulsion was optimized, based on experimentally prepared ternary phase diagrams of THF/oil/water and dioxane/oil/water. The results suggest that this technically viable approach can successfully recover essentially all of the oil from the emulsion, equivalent to an overall free oil recovery of ~63% from dehulled yellow mustard flour.