Chemical composition of lipophilic extractives from sisal (Agave sisalana) fibers

Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla, CSIC, PO Box 1052, E-41080 Seville, Spain. Corresponding author, E-mail: [email protected] (A. Gutiérrez)The chemical composition of lipophilic extractives from sisal (Agave sisalana) fibers, which are used for high-quality paper pulp production was studied. The lipophilic extract, which accounted for 0.5 % of total sisal fiber weight, was analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) using short- and medium-length high temperature capillary columns, respectively. For a more detailed characterization, the extract was fractionated by solid-phase extraction and the fractions obtained were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The most predominant compounds identified were fatty acids (30% of total lipids) including α- and -hydroxyfatty acids, fatty alcohols (20%), free sterols (11%), alkanes (11%) and a series of ferulic acid esters of long chain alcohols and -hydroxyfatty acids (10%). Additionally, steroid hydrocarbons and ketones, monoglycerides, aldehydes, waxes, and sterol glycosides were also found together with minor amounts of diglycerides, and sterol esters.This study has been supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (MCYT) (projects AGL2002-00393 and AGL2005-01748) and EU project (BIORENEW, NMP2-CT-2006-026456). We thank CELESA pulp mill (Tortosa, Spain) for providing the sisal fibers.Peer reviewe