Spray Drying and Crystallization of Cottonseed Meal Raffinose as a New Prebiotic

Isolated raffinose could have beneficial effects as a prebiotic in the prevention of cardio vascular diseases and is considered to be protective against colonic diseases such as ulcerative colitis and possibly also colon cancer. Cottonseed meal (CSM) is a byproduct of the cotton oil industry and has high raffinose content. New Mexico State University is utilizing a new variety of cottonseed that is gossypol free for high-quality feed and human food products. The long-term goal of this project is to obtain a method to extract raffinose from the glandless CSM. CSM with two different fat concentrations (6.52 and 13.33%) was studied. Raffinose was precipitated with a 50% ethanol solution and crystallized with a 50% acetone solution or spray-dried. Low fat content CSM showed 6.6% of raffinose, while high fat content CSM had only 2.4%. After extraction and concentration, crystallized raffinose had a higher (p <0.05) concentration than spray-dried raffinose. Further studies are aimed to increase the raffinose extraction rate and purity in the final product. Purified raffinose can be used to develop new novel foods with a commercial and consumer application worldwide.