Abstract:With soybean germ as the raw material，a suitable solvent was chosen for the extraction of soybean germ crude extract，and column chromatography was used to isolate and purify soybean germ sterol esters from the soybean germ crude extract.By using single-factor and orthogonal tests，the optimal conditions for the isolation and purification of soybean germ sterol esters by column chromatography were determined.Liquid chromatography，infrared spectroscopy，and gas chromatography were used to characterize the purified products.The results demonstrated that the optimal conditions for the isolation and purification of soybean germ sterol esters were as follows：200-300 mesh silica gel powder as an adsorbent，loading volume of 2.0 g，column height to diameter ratio（H/D）of 12∶1，and eluent（n-hexane，ether，and acetic acid）volume ratio of 90∶10∶1.The purity of soybean germ sterol esters was（96.11±0.41）% and the yield was（94.99±0.19）% under the optimal conditions for the isolation and purification（in terms of crude extract of soybean germ）.As revealed by liquid chromatography，infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry，the sterols of soybean germ sterol esters consisted of β-sitosterol，stigmasterol，campesterol，and lanosterol.The gas chromatography analysis showed that the fatty acids mainly included linoleic acid，palmitic acid，and linolenic acid.