Patent ID: 6896911

Claim:
A process for producing an oryzanol enriched fraction from rice bran oil soap stock, the said process comprising steps: a) stirring rice bran oil soap stock having a moisture content in the range of 60-70% and a pH ranging between 10-11 in a steam jacketed kettle at a temperature in a range of 70 to 90° C. for a period of 15 to 30 minutes to obtain an uniform hot dispersion, b) adding 0.2 to 1.2% sodium hydroxide to the uniform hot dispersion of step (a) mixing at a temperature in the range of 70 to 90° C. for a period of 10 to 15 minutes to obtain a hot alkaline soap stock dispersion, c) homogenizing the hot alkaline soap stock dispersion of step (b) by passing through a colloidal mill for 3-5 passes over a period of 5 to 10 minutes to obtain a homogenized alkaline soap stock dispersion, d) mixing the homogenized alkaline soap stock dispersion of step (c) in a steam jacketed kettle at a temperature in the range of 70° to 90° C. for a period of 30-45 minutes for saponification to obtain saponified soap stock, e) dehydrating the saponified soap stock of step (d) by drying in a rotating drum at a temperature in the range of 90° to 100° C., a steam pressure of 1.0-1.10 kg/cm 2 for a time period of less than a minute to obtain saponified and dehydrated rice bran oil soap stock, f) adding the saponified and dehydrated rice bran oil soap stock of step (e) to a packed bed followed by leaching the said saponified and dehydrated rice bran oil soap stock in the packed bed by using an organic solvent or mixture of solvents at a temperature in the range of 25° to 29° C. for a time period of 2 hours to 4 hours to obtain an extract, g) decanting the extract of step (f), and h) desolvating the decanted extract of step (g) to obtain the oryzanol enriched fraction.