Currently, commercial corn germ oil is produced by pressing and/or hexane extraction (Moreau and Hicks 2005 ), in which oil is obtained from conditioned (heated) germs, followed by mechanically expelled (‘pre-pressed’) and then hexane extraction (Moreau 2011 ).
How is corn germ extracted from starch?
During the wet milling process, the germ is isolated from the starch using cyclone separators, washed, and dried. The dried germ contains about 50% oil, in which the oil constitutes about 85% of the total amount of oil present in the corn. The oil is produced by first expelling the germ and then extracting the expeller cake with n -hexane.
What is corn germ oil?
Corn germ oil is a nutritious and healthy edible oil. It has a transparent golden yellow color and a fragrant fragrance. It is called “liquid gold” by Western countries. Corn germ oil contains 80?85% of unsaturated fatty acids, oleic acid, linoleic acid, and α-linolenic acid. The content of linoleic acid is as high as 56%.
Can corn germs be milled before oil extraction?
Grinding oilseeds prior to oil extraction may enlarge the interface between material particles and aqueous solvent or enzyme, and then enhance free oil yield. In previous research, colloid milling was employed to mill corn germs (Dickey et al. 2010 ). In this study, a dry milling method was developed to grind corn germ.