Abstract: A process for recovering sterols from organic material containing sterols and sterol derivatives. In a first step (a) the organic material is reacted with at least one of polyols, polyamines, alkanolamines or monohydric alcohols to increase the amount of free sterols in the organic material; (b) reacting residual reactants, and their esters or amides with epoxydated components; and (c) separating the free sterols from the mixture by short path distillation, thin film evaporation, or flash evaporation. The recovered sterols can be further purified by a crystallization step.