A method for preparing corn fiber oil involving separating corn fiber from
corn kernels (e.g., by a wet milling process), drying the corn fiber,
grinding the dried corn fiber to produce ground corn fiber having a
particle size of less than about 100 microns, combining the ground corn
fiber with an aqueous solution having a specific gravity effective to
float aleurone cells, removing the floating aleurone fraction, drying the
aleurone fraction to form a dried aleurone fraction, grinding the dried
aleurone fraction to form a ground aleurone fraction, extracting corn
fiber oil from the ground aleurone fraction by a way selected from the
group consisting of an organic solvent and supercritical fluid
extraction, and separating the extracted corn fiber oil from the
extraction medium. Also shown is a method of recovering corn aleurone
cells from corn fiber involving separating corn fiber from corn kernels
by a wet milling process, drying the corn fiber, grinding the dried corn
fiber to produce ground corn fiber having a particle size of less than
about 100 microns, combining the ground corn fiber with an aqueous
solution having a specific gravity effective to float aleurone cells, and
removing the floating aleurone fraction.