Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Isolation of Cholesterol?

Farenimio - 12-2-2016 at 23:58

Does anyone knows how to isolate cholesterol from... something... anything... that doesn't involve extracting with a chromatography column... I don't have access to that fancy stuff.

JJay - 13-2-2016 at 04:09

I have seen canisters of cholesterol sold as a hair styling product. You might be able to get it from beauty salons. It is easy to purchase from chemical suppliers but I don't remember which ones sell it offhand.


Dr.Bob - 13-2-2016 at 11:47

We did the extraction of cholesterol from gallstones when I was in college. That worked pretty well, and is in one of the introductory org chem lab books, but I can't remember which off hand. But a quick search in google found many versions, plus also ones using egg yolk, which should be easier to get hold of at the store, unless you should at a pretty odd market.

https://www.google.com/?gfe_rd=ssl&ei=zoe_VqnqJcPA-AWni6...

https://www.google.com/?gfe_rd=ssl&ei=zoe_VqnqJcPA-AWni6...

Tsjerk - 13-2-2016 at 15:11

Brain tissue is apparently a good source, maybe a butcher around?

CuReUS - 13-2-2016 at 19:20

Quote: Originally posted by Dr.Bob  
We did the extraction of cholesterol from gallstones when I was in college. That worked pretty well, and is in one of the introductory org chem lab books, but I can't remember which off hand.

I think you are referring to this book,which is there in the SM library
http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/Experiments_...

[Edited on 14-2-2016 by CuReUS]

Tsjerk - 14-2-2016 at 02:15

Prep Biochem. 1977;7(3-4):181-6.
A simple and rapid method for the isolation of cholesterol from spinal cord of cattle.
Ali SA, Jamal N.

Maybe something like this? I don't have excess, but maybe you can ask in the reference section.

Crowfjord - 14-2-2016 at 10:15

I also isolated cholesterol from human gallstones as a college organic chemistry exercise. Pure crystalline cholesterol is actually quite beautiful. Soft, sparkling, pearly stuff.

The procedure consisted of boiling crushed gallstone in 2-butanone (MEK), filtering to remove bilirubin and bile pigments, and evaporating about two thirds of the solvent. The concentrated solution is diluted with a little methanol, heated to boiling, then water is added drop-wise until a very faint cloudiness persists. The vessel is insulated and the solution allowed to cool slowly to ambient temperature, then further cooled in ice. The crystals are vacuum filtered, washed with a little ice-cold methanol, then allowed to dry.

The above extracted cholesterol still contains small amounts of cholestanol, cholestadienol, and cholestenol, which can be separated by bromination. The dibromo derivative of cholesterol is sparingly soluble, whereas the above contaminants either don't react or are dehydrogenated by the bromine, so stay soluble. The dibromo derivative is filtered and debrominated with zinc dust in ether/acetic acid.

Metacelsus - 14-2-2016 at 15:39

How does one obtain gallstones?

j_sum1 - 14-2-2016 at 15:53

Quote: Originally posted by Cheddite Cheese  
How does one obtain gallstones?

I think a poor diet helps. :P

Crowfjord - 14-2-2016 at 16:46

I think the ones we had at school were donated from a local hospital. Maybe you can get some if you say they are for educational use?