Environmental & Analytical Toxicology

Evaluation of the Methodology for the Chemical Extraction of Phorbol Esters contained in Jatropha Curcas Oil

Abstract

Felipe Augusto Moro Loureiro* and Alana Lemos Cavalcante de Oliveira

The use of resources that are of natural origin and that the practices are sustainable both in the harvest and manufacture of other products are increasingly poignant in the world society. In this sense, the use of the Pinhão Manso fruit (Jatropha curcas), an oilseed similar to mannone and soy, can be used as an input for various products in the Chemical Industry ranging from biodiesel to fine chemicals. The current work is a prologue to the work of evaluating the methodology for extracting phorbol esters by means of solvent extraction. The solvent initially used was ethanol and for comparison, regarding the presence of phorbol esters, the albumen was pressed to obtain the oil. The characterizations were performed by FTIR, NMR and HPLC. Through the analysis of FTIR, NMR and HPLC, the presence of common fatty acids was observed. There is also evidence that even in small concentrations there is a presence of phorbol esters, even when the extraction is carried out by polar solvent.