Preparation Of Tocopherol Succinate And Tocopherol Acetate

The deep processing products of Vitamin E (tocopherol) such as Tocopherol Succinate and Tocopherol Acetate have a better chemical stability than Vitamin E. Compared to Vitamin E, their better efficacy and convenience of use not only can make up for the shortage of Vitamin E, but also to expande its applications. So far, the research of deep processing of vitamin E focused on the same type of raw tocopherol materials. In this paper, the process of preparing Tocopherol Succinate and Tocopherol Acetate by natural tocopherol and synthetic tocopherol were investigated respectively.Higher the content of Vitamin E was, more it could convert to tocopherol ester. For this reason, natural tocopherol was purified by organic solvent extraction in this paper. The results showed that the optimal conditions were: extraction solvent acetone, amount 15ml/g( VE material), crystallization temperature -16℃, crystallization time 48h. Under this condition, the content of Vitamin E was up to 62.97% from 50% originally; and the specific rotation of Vitamin E was up to 23.79°from 23.67°, with which the biological activity of Vitamin E did not lost nearly but also increased slightly.Both natural tocopherol and synthetic tocopherol were used to prepare Tocopherol Succinate in this research. The optimal conditions of making natural Tocopherol Succinate were: reaction time 5h, reaction temperature 55℃, catalyst amount 8ml, molar raio of succinic anhydride to Vitamin E 3:1. The esterification ratio of natural tocopherol was 91.46%. The optimal conditions of making synthetic Tocopherol Succinate were: molar ratio of succinic anhydride to Vitamin E 3:1, catalyst amount 8ml, reaction temperature 45℃, reaction time 4h. The esterification ratio of synthetic tocopherol was 95.89%.Crystallization of the crude tocopherol succinate with hexane could improve its purity. Experimental results showed that hexane/tos 8(ml/g), crystallization temperature 4℃, crystallization time 24h, the purity of natural tos could reach to 90.87%. When hexane/tos 10(ml/g), crystallization temperature 4℃, crystallization time 24h, the purity of synthetic tos could reach to 98.69%.Both natural tocopherol and synthetic tocopherol were used to prepare Tocopherol Accetate. The optimal conditions of making natural Tocopherol Accetate were: reaction time 4h, reaction temperature 55℃, catalyst amount 6ml, molar raio of acetic anhydride to Vitamin E 2:1. The esterification ratio of natural tocopherol was 91.46%. The optimal conditions of making synthetic Tocopherol Accetate were: molar raio of acetic anhydride to Vitamin E 2:1, reaction time 4h, reaction temperature 45℃, catalyst amount 6ml. The esterification ratio of synthetic tocopherol was 95.89%.The preparation mechanism of tocopherol acetate was similar to tocopherol succinate's. However, the reaction conditions of tocopherol acetate were relatively moderate, and needed less experimental cost, lower energy.