Development of an efficient procedure for preparing high quality Camellia oleifera seed oil by enzymatic extraction and demulsification

Camellia oleifera seed oil is rich in unsaturated fatty acids, and has various nutraceutical and health benefits, but the application of it is hindered by inappropriate processing methods. In this work, we developed an efficient procedure for preparing high quality Camellia oleifera seed oil using enzymatic extraction and demulsification. Through the screening of enzyme types, acid protease was found to be the optimal enzyme for extraction, resulting in a clear oil yield of 66.94±0.70% under the optimized conditions determined by using response surface methodology (RSM). In order to address the issue of excessive emulsion formation during enzymatic extraction, enzymatic demulsification was utilized to recover the clear oil from the emulsion layer. After successively addition of medium temperature α-amylase and acid protease under the optimized conditions, a demulsification rate of up to 74.31±0.27% and a clear oil yield of 16.01% were obtained. Therefore, a total clear oil yield of 82.95% was achieved. Finally, the quality indexes of three clear oil samples were analyzed, and all of them attained level one of Chinese National Standard GB/T 11765–2018. These results demonstrate the efficient preparation of high-quality Camellia oleifera seed oil by full enzymatic extraction and demulsification. It provides valuable theoretical guidance for the environmentally friendly extraction of Camellia oleifera seed oil, with potential applications in its production.