Abstract
A modification in the process involving oil extraction from rice bran is presented, this is to introduce multiple enzymatic reactions prior to solvent extraction. Thermal treatment is applied to the rice bran for the deactivation of lipase. At first the oil extraction was carried out with solvent extraction technique only by using a solvent mixture composed of 50% acetone and 50% ethanol. The oil extraction yield was found to be 80.502 %. In another process the rice bran was first treated with a combination of enzymes comprising of Protease, Cellulase, Hemi-cellulose & α-Amylase and then after enzymatic activity the dried rice bran was subjected to solvent extraction using 50% acetone and 50%. It was found that extraction got an increase of 6.51% when rice bran is treated with enzymes prior to solvent extraction in such a way that the enzymatic concentration was maintained as 3% by weight of rice bran, contact time for enzymatic reaction as 4hrs and keeping moisture to rice bran ratio as 7 during the enzymatic activity.