Ox bile extract, also known as purified oxgall and sodium choleate, is obtained by evaporating the alcohol extract of concentrated bile.
It is a mixture of varying amounts of the salts of the bile acids,
lipid materials such as cholesterol and lecithin, choline compounds,
glycocol and other substances. The bile acids, which occur
as sodium salts in the bile of most vertebrates, are derivatives of
the steroid cholanic acid. Cholic acid is 3,7,12-trihydroxycholanic
acid; desoxycholic acid is 3,12 dihydroxy-5-cholanic acid; glycocholic
acid is cholylglycine; and taurocholic acid is cholyltaurine.
Bile salts and hence bile extract are useful in some foods because
of their emulsifying and surfactant properties. Cholic acid, desoxycholic
acid, glycocholic acid, taurocholic acid, and bile extract are
“generally recognized as safe”.
Extractives and their physically modified derivatives such as proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, nucleic acids, inorganic ions, etc. obtained from mammalian bile.
