Lecithin modification under industrial conditions with adequate techniques of analysis may be useful for evaluating the potential applications of these sunflower by-products to the production of new emulsifiers. The aim of this research was to study the effect of the use of different absolute-ethanol:water mixtures and pH levels on the differential extraction of phospholipids from sunflower lecithin and to evaluate the emulsifying properties in O/W emulsions of the different PC-enriched fractions thus obtained. Phospholipid composition of the enriched fractions was determined by 31PNMR. The highest PC enriched fraction yields were obtained during the fractionation with ethanol: water mixtures 96:4. However, the different conditions of pH assayed did not markedly modify the yield of the enriched fractions with different solvent extraction. The emulsifying properties of the PC enriched fractions obtained were evaluated in oil in water O/W (30:70 wt/wt) emulsions, which were optically characterized using a vertical scan analyzer (QuickScan) to determine the corresponding destabilization kinetics involved. Emulsions formulated with PC enriched fractions obtained with ethanol:water mixtures 96:4 exhibited greater stability, mainly at pH 7.5, in comparison with those corresponding to PC enriched fractions from ethanol:water mixtures 90:10 for the different pH levels assayed.
