[Tamagotchi]

Hi, I am a pre-undergraduate student studying in the UK.

There is a chemistry competition for a company which my school has connections with and the project needs to involve extracting chemicals from a plant. I did some research and, as I have had an interest in neurology, I thought the extraction of Eicosapentanoic Acid (EPA) from fish or algae might be interesting. The problem, however, is how to extract this  substance from the fish/algae. I have looked up on the internet of ways to extract EPA but found nothing. Could someone explain to me how I could carry out this experiment to extract EPA and, if possible, the names of the mechanisms (or the mechanism itself) involved.

Thanks

[Honclbrif]

A search for "eicosapentanoic acid* isolation" yielded a few results that may be helpful. http://www.cyberlipid.org/fattyt/fatt0002.htm. It looks like it may be somewhat complicated for an amateur, but you may get something to work from it. Just don't expect to get a huge amount. As for a source material: how much EPA does cod liver oil contain? Its probably cheaper, easier, and safer than throwing a salmon in a blender with a bunch of hexane.

*Most chemical names are not proper nouns. Makes little difference to an internet search, but if you are presenting this, its best to keep such things straight.

[Honclbrif]

Re-read the OP. If you have to extract it from a plant, then i would think about getting it from algae instead of fish (even though the fish do get it from the algae themselves). Alternatively, you could try flax seed oil if omega-3s are your thing. Don't know if there's any EPA in that though.