PURPOSE: To provide a method for improving the purification of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) or its ester by an EPA-urea adduct method simple in the recovery of the urea and a solvent.
CONSTITUTION: This method for purifying EPA comprises (1) a process for mixing a fatty acid mixture containing EPA with urea and a solvent comprising 70-95wt.% of a lower alcohol and 30-5wt.% of water, (2) a process for heating the mixture obtained in the process (1) for dissolving the urea, cooling the solution, adding a non-polar solvent to the deposited urea crystals, and subsequently filtering the urea crystals, (3) a process for separating the filtrate obtained in the process (2) into an alcoholic aqueous solution layer and a non- polar solvent layer, (4) a process for mixing the alcohol aqueous solution layer obtained in the process (3) with the urea crystals obtained in the process (2), thermally dissolving the urea crystal, separating the solution into a fatty acid mixture layer and a urea-containing alcohol aqueous solution layer, and subsequently recovering the ureacontaining alcohol aqueous solution, and (5) a process for recovering the non-polar solvent from the non-polar solvent layer obtained in the process (3) and subsequently separating the EPA.
KONNO KIICHI
TAKAMOTO MIKIYA
NISSHIN FLOUR MILLING CO
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