Beta-cryptoxanthin from plant source and a process for its preparation

Claim 1

A process for the preparation of a trans-beta-cryptoxanthin enriched concentrate from plant material comprising about 10-80% by weight total xanthophylls, of which about 75-98% by weight is trans-beta-cryptoxanthin, the process comprising: (a) mixing an oleoresin of plant material comprising xanthophylls esters with an aliphatic alcoholic solvent; (b) saponifying the xanthophylls esters present in the oleoresin with an alkali at an elevated temperature; (c) removing the aliphatic alcoholic solvent followed by addition of water to obtain a diluted resultant mixture; (d) adding a diluted organic acid to the diluted resultant mixture to form a water layer and a precipitated xanthophylls mass; (e) removing the water layer and washing the precipitated xanthophylls mass with a polar solvent; (f) drying the precipitated xanthophylls mass to obtain a crude xanthophylls mass; (g) washing the crude xanthophylls mass with a non-polar solvent and concentrating the non-polar solvent washings to obtain a concentrated crude xanthophylls mass; (h) transferring the concentrated crude xanthophylls mass to a silica gel column and washing with a non-polar solvent; (i) eluting the column with a mixture of non-polar and polar solvent and concentrating the elutions to obtain a trans-beta-cryptoxanthin-rich xanthophylls concentrate; (j) admixing the trans-beta-cryptoxanthin-rich xanthophylls concentrate with an aliphatic alcohol and then cooling; and (k) filtering and drying the trans-beta-cryptoxanthin-rich xanthophylls concentrate to obtain the purified trans-beta-cryptoxanthin concentrate.