Optimization of Bleaching Conditions in Refining Process of Camellia Oil with Response Surface Method

The objective of this study was to optimize bleaching conditions of camellia oil by minimizing the lovibond yellow color and maximizing the polyphenol content. The experiments of bleaching were conducted using RSM with Box-Behnken design for the camellia oil. RSM was used to investigate the effects of active clay amount (2-6 wt%), heating temperature (30-60 oC) and stirring speed (60-140 rpm) on lovibond yellow color and polyphenol content. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that active clay amount, heating temperature and stirring speed significantly effect on lovibond yellow color and polyphenol content (p < .05), while the quadratic (X22, X32) and interaction effect of X1X2, X2X3 hardly influence the polyphenol content (p > .05). In addition, the optimized conditions were active clay amount of 4 g/hg, the heating temperature of 40 oC, and the stirring speed of 60 rpm. Under these conditions, the experimental lovibond yellow color and polyphenol content were 8.5 (133.4mm) and 26.74 mg/kg respectively, which were well matched with the predictive values.

Shuai Huang, Wen W. Jin, Dan Huang, Lin Chen and Jianwu Yu