Mechanism of nonhydrated phospholipid removal in soybean oil using aminopolycarboxylic acid ligands

Herein, nonhydrated phospholipids (NHPs) were removed from soybean oil using three silica adsorbents modified using aminopolycarboxylic acid ligands. The removal rate of NHPs was 62.98 %. In the end, LC-MS was used to characterize 221 phospholipid molecules. Principal component analysis was used to identify nine signature compounds. The changes in trace component concentration revealed that the highest retention of total phytosterols was 94.4 % after degumming with glutamic acid diacetic acid-modified silica adsorbent. By contrast, the lowest loss of total phenols was 9.42 %. The total soy isoflavone concentration increased to 1.09 times the original. In addition, the decrease in the content of calcium and magnesium metal ions after degumming explains the mechanism by which the ligands on the modified adsorbent ligand chelate with the calcium and magnesium ions bound to the NHPs, converting NHPs to HPs and then removing them by hydration degumming.