Effect of Chemical Refining on the Reduction of β-Carboline Content in Sesame Seed Oil

beta-carbolines (harman and norharman) are potentially mutagenic and have been reported in some vegetable oils. Sesame seed oil is obtained from roasted sesame seeds. During sesame oil processing, roasting is the key procedure to aroma enhancement, in which beta-carbolines are produced. Pressed sesame seed oils cover most market share, while leaching solvents are used to extract oils from the pressed sesame cake to improve the utilization of the raw materials. beta carbolines are nonpolar heterocyclic aromatic amines with good solubility in leaching solvents (n-hexane); therefore, the beta-carbolines in sesame cake migrated to the leaching sesame seed oil. The refining procedures are indispensable for leaching sesame seed oil, in which some small molecules can be reduced. Thus, the critical aim is to evaluate the changes in eta-carboline content during the refining of leaching sesame seed oil and the key process steps for the removal of beta-carbolines. In this work, the levels of beta-carbolines (harman and norharman) in sesame seed oil during chemical refining processes (degumming, deacidification, bleaching and deodorization) have been determined using solid phase extraction and high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The results indicated that in the entire refining process, the levels of total beta-carbolines greatly decreased, and the adsorption decolorization was the most effective process in reducing beta-carbolines, which might be related to the adsorbent used in the decolorization process. In addition, the effects of adsorbent type, adsorbent dosage and blended adsorbent on beta-carbolines in sesame seed oil during the decolorization process were investigated. It was concluded that oil refining can not only improve the quality of sesame seed oil, but also reduce most of the harmful beta-carbolines.