Purification of Essential Linoleic Acid from Pinus armandi franch Seed Oil by Silver-Silica Gel Chromatography Column

Pinus armandi franch is a special local plant in China and its seed oil is a nice resource of linoleic acid (LA) with a content of 63% of the total fatty acid. LA is an essential fatty acid and it exerts a variety of physiological functions. The absence of LA in the diet is responsible for the development of various abnormal disorders. Highly purified LA is required on pharmaceutical applications. This work reports recovery of highly purified LA from Pinus armandi franch seed oil by means of a process including Pinus armandi franch seed oil saponification and concentration of the fatty acids by urea inclusion fractionation method. Afterward, PUFA were methylated, and the urea-concentrate methylated was purified by using silver-silica gel column chromatography. Silver-silica gel chromatography yields high purity LA in the procedure in Pinus armandi franch seed oil. The recovery for the combined procedure was 79%, with a final purity 97.03%. Therefore, highly pure PUFA linoleic acid could be obtained by silver-silica gel chromatography column.