Phytosterol-enriched Camellia oleifera Abel seed oil obtained by subcritical butane extraction: Physicochemical properties and oxidative stability

Tao Yang; Rui He; Qiuyu Xia; Ilaria Cacciotti; Sameh A Korma; Weimin Zhang; Guohui Yi

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.142791

Phytosterol-enriched Camellia oleifera Abel seed oil obtained by subcritical butane extraction: Physicochemical properties and oxidative stability

Food Chem. 2025 Jan 6:472:142791. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.142791. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Tao Yang¹, Rui He², Qiuyu Xia³, Ilaria Cacciotti⁴, Sameh A Korma⁵, Weimin Zhang⁶, Guohui Yi⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Pharmacy, Hainan Provincial Key Laboratory for Research and Development of Tropical Herbs, Hainan Medical University, Haikou 571199, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
² School of Pharmacy, Hainan Provincial Key Laboratory for Research and Development of Tropical Herbs, Hainan Medical University, Haikou 571199, China; College of Food Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Functional Food of Hainan Province, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.
³ College of Food Science and Technology, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China.
⁴ Department of Engineering, INSTM RU, University of Rome "Niccolò Cusano", Via Don Carlo Gnocchi 3, Roma 00166, Italy.
⁵ Department of Food Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Zagazig 44519, Egypt.
⁶ College of Food Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Functional Food of Hainan Province, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁷ School of Pharmacy, Hainan Provincial Key Laboratory for Research and Development of Tropical Herbs, Hainan Medical University, Haikou 571199, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39808909
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.142791

Abstract

Tea (Camellia oleifera Abel) seed oil (TSO) has antioxidant and pharmacological properties. In this study, TSO was obtained from tea seeds by subcritical n-butane extraction (SBE), which is an environmentally friendly method. The oil yield, quality characteristics, and chemical composition of the extracted TSO were compared with those of oils obtained by supercritical carbon dioxide extraction (SCDE) and conventional cold pressing (CP). The TSO yield from SBE (51.35 %) was similar to that from SCDE (50.30 %), but higher than that from CP (31.82 %). TSO from SBE had better oxidative stability than that from SCDE and a lower toxic aldehyde content (0.41 mg/L) than that from SCDE (0.71 mg/L) and CP (2.67 mg/L). Moreover, TSO from SBE had relatively high tocopherols (26.20 mg/100 g) and phytosterols (842.25 mg/100 g) contents. Based on these findings, SBE is a promising method for obtaining high-quality TSO enriched with tocopherols and phytosterols.

Keywords: Camellia oleifera Abel; Phytosterol-enriched; Subcritical n-butane extraction; Tea seed oil.