Extraction and Enrichment of n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and

ARTICLE pubs.acs.org/JAFC

Extraction and Enrichment of n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Ethyl Esters through Reversible π
π Complexation with Aromatic Rings Containing Ionic Liquids Ling-Zhi Cheong, Zheng Guo, Zhiyong Yang, Seong-Chea Chua, and Xuebing Xu* Department of Molecular Biology, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus, Denmark ABSTRACT: The present study investigated the potentials of ionic liquids (ILs) containing aromatic rings in extracting and enriching n-3 polyunsaturated compounds. The relationship between extraction efficiency, selectivity, and structure of ILs was studied and elucidated. Ionic liquids containing aromatic rings such as the N,N0 -dialkylimidazolium and N-alkylpyridinium are found to selectively extract and enrich n-3 polyunsaturated compounds. The IL extraction process reached equilibrium relatively quickly (