ABSTRACT
Significant changes in the proportions of FS and SE occur during refining (21,22,24). Refining reduced the total phytosterol and FS contents of evening primrose and borage oils, whereas the concentration of SE increased (24). A similar trend was observed in crude and refined oil samples from different origins. The results of Verleyn et al. (22) for
several oil types confirm these results. Furthermore, steryl esters of corn, soybean, and rapeseed oils were reduced by only 3-16% when the total sterols were reduced by 1836% (21). These results show that refining causes preferential removal of FS and that esterification of sterols also occurs (22,24). It was proposed that sterol esterification is promoted by increasing temperatures during the deodorization process (22).
