2-methyloxolane as alternative solvent for lipid extraction and its effect on the cactus (Opuntia ficus-indicaL.) seed oil fractions

Said Gharby,Dominique Guillaume,Harish Karthikeyan Ravi,Farid Chemat,Maryline Abert Vian,Zoubida Charrouf

doi:10.1051/ocl/2020021

Abstract

The potential of 2-methyloxolane (2-MeO) as an alternative solvent to extract cactus seed oil was compared, in qualitative and quantitative terms, with that of n-hexane, a solvent commonly used for the extraction of edible or cosmetic oils. With 2-MeO, the oil yield was higher (9.55 ± 0.12 g/100 g) than the oil extracted with n-hexane (8.86 ± 0.25 g/100 g). The chemical and physical parameters quality indices (acidity, peroxide value and extinction coefficients (K232and K270) of 2-methyloxolane extracted oil were found to be much higher than that of oil extracted with n-hexane. A suitable refining scheme will have to be applied, probably leading to slight additional cost and losses. Also, the results showed that the sterol content was higher in the oil obtained with 2-MeO (111.5 ± 2.5 mg/100 g) as a solvent when compared to the oil extracted with n-hexane (102.1 ± 7.54 mg/100 g). However, fatty acid and tocopherol content were not influenced by the extraction solvent. Therefore, the bio-based solvent 2-methyloxolane can be considered as an excellent alternative to the petroleum-based solvent n-hexane for edible/cosmetic oil extraction. The utilization of 2-MeO for oil extraction can drastically reduce the health and environmental impacts associated with n-hexane.

Highlights

Cosmetic vegetable oils are valued by customers because of their remarkable moisturizing, and more generally their characteristic dermatologic properties
The solvent hexane has long been touted as a solvent of choice for lipid extraction due to the subsequent oil recovery easiness, lipid specificity, low latent heat of vaporization leading to limited solvent regeneration costs and very low water miscibility allowing the use of steam stripping for solvent removal which is efficient in terms of solvents residues in oil and meals, solvent losses, and processing cost, relatively narrow boiling point and its excellent lipid solubilizing ability (Fine et al, 2013; Kumar et al, 2017; Tanzi et al, 2012; Ravi et al, 2019)
Free fatty acid (FFA) was found in the 2-MeO oil fraction, which could be due to selective extraction of FFA by 2-MeO

Summary

Introduction

Cosmetic vegetable oils are valued by customers because of their remarkable moisturizing, and more generally their characteristic dermatologic properties Their natural origin makes cosmetic vegetable oils an environment-friendly product and is preferred by customers. The remaining press-cake is still oil-rich, and extraction of oil from crushed seeds with hexane enhances cactus seed oil yield. The solvent hexane has long been touted as a solvent of choice for lipid extraction due to the subsequent oil recovery easiness, lipid specificity, low latent heat of vaporization leading to limited solvent regeneration costs and very low water miscibility allowing the use of steam stripping for solvent removal which is efficient in terms of solvents residues in oil and meals, solvent losses, and processing cost, relatively narrow boiling point and its excellent lipid solubilizing ability (Fine et al, 2013; Kumar et al, 2017; Tanzi et al, 2012; Ravi et al, 2019). The toxicological aspects of 2-MeO are likely to be less harmful than hexane (Antonucci et al, 2011; Ravi et al, 2019)

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