Focused microwave-assisted Soxhlet extraction of acorn oil for determination of the fatty acid profile by GC-MS. Comparison with conventional and standard methods.

A study of the feasibility of focused microwave-assisted Soxhlet extraction of acorn oil and comparison of results from analysis of trans fatty acids in the oil thus obtained with those for oils obtained by use of other methods commonly used for oil extraction are reported here. The proposed method was optimized by means of a 21-experiment screening design to determine, by means of a reduced number of experiments, which factors affect both extraction efficiency and the degree of unsaturation of the fatty acids in the oil. The proposed method enables total extraction of the fatty acids in 30 min, which is much less than the time required by the Folch (4.5 h), Soxhlet (16 h), and ISO (8 h) reference methods and the stirring-extraction method (56 h). The efficiency of extraction achieved by use of the proposed method is statistically equivalent to that achieved by use of the other methods; the composition of the extracts obtained by use of the proposed method and the Folch and stirring reference methods are also statistically similar. No trans fatty acids were present in the extracts obtained by use of the Folch, stirring, and proposed methods but they were detected in the extracts obtained by use of both the Soxhlet and ISO methods.