Gossypol is a yellow pigment poly-phenolic compound found in the cotton seed and it is toxic component in cottonseed. After extraction of oil, cottonseed cake is used only for cattle feed and cannot be used as poultry feed or for human being because of gossypol toxicity. A process for producing gossypol-free cottonseed cake from cottonseed meals the process is characterized by an integrated sequence of drying, flaking, disintegrating, screen separating and solvent extraction separating steps. The process accomplishes the substantially complete removal of gossypol from cottonseed cake. Gossypol-free protein contained in gossypol-free de-oiled cake is 60-62 percent by weight on a de-oiled cake and moisture-free basis. Considerable attention has been given to methods for the isolation of gossypol from cottonseed. These procedures all involve a preliminary solvent extraction of gossypol from defatted meats, by use of solvents such as diethyl ether or acetone. While satisfactory for small-scale preparations, the excessive costs of solvent extraction systems for the removal of a constituent present to the extent of about 1% in the cottonseed kernel mitigate against large scale use of such systems. Additionally, in order to support further studies into the medical activity of gossypol, methods are needed to isolate large quantities of the compound in high purity. A process is described to recover gossypol from cottonseed.
