Q: Dr. Sears,
I recently read a report from The Cornucopia Institute that was submitted to the FDA that attacked the use of the algae form of DHA, because it claimed that to produce this DHA oil, a chemical, hexane, was used as an solvent, and hexane, they claim, is highly neurotoxic with the assumption that small quantities of hexane remain in the DHA oil even after the manufacturing process and would be harmful if consumed. Hexane, from what I understand, is often used as a solvent to manufacturer a wide variety of cooking oils (with several exceptions, like olive oil, which is “pressed”). I then read the list of ingredients in your fish oil, and I noticed it contains sesame seed oil, so I am wondering if hexane is used as a solvent to make sesame seed oil in your products. As a biochemist, what is your opinion of the safety of consuming oils produced using Hexane? Should I stop taking either the algae DHA or your DHA (assuming sesame seed oil uses hexane in the manufacturing process)? By the way, my wife is pregnant and takes the DHA pills, while I consume your fish oil.
Thank you very much, Dave
A: Dear Dave,
All vegetable oils are extracted with hexane, whereas fish oils are not. The algae oils rich in DHA must also be extracted with hexane to pull the oil out of the algae cells. The toasted sesame oil concentrate used in our fish oil is a highly purified lignan that is not soluble in hexane, and therefore cannot be extracted into hexane. I would always recommend the fish oil as the preferred source of omega-3 fatty acids.
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