Effect of CO2 flow rate, co-solvent and pressure behavior to yield by supercritical CO2 extraction of Mariposa Christia Vespertilionis leaves

Abstract

Mariposa Christia Vespertilionis (MCV) is a plant which have being known as ‘red butterfly wing’ to local people in Malaysia. MCV has been known to be used as a traditional treatment for bundle of diseases such as tuberculosis, bronchitis, inflamed tonsils, colds, muscle weakness and poor blood circulation. Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) is the technology equipment that can be used for the extraction of MCV leaves for its valuable compound. SFE is a process of separating inner matrix from outside matrix by extracting inner compound with CO2 as the main solvent. SFE technology is widely used in extraction of herbal plant because of the environmental friendly process compared to the conventional extraction with eco-friendly co-solvent used like ethanol. The objectives of this study was to analyze the optimum parameter of CO2 flow rate among selected parameter range (15g/min – 35g/min), to analyze the optimum parameter of co-solvent percentage among selected parameter range (5% - 25%) and to study the pressure behavior effect on extraction yield of MCV leaves using SFE-CO2. The fixed variables in this study were temperature at 50°C, particle size of 63 µm, ethanol as the co-solvent and extraction time was fixed to 1 hour for all parameters. After SFE extraction process, the co-solvent was separated from the extract using Rotary Evaporator (ROVAP) with 76°C temperature in order to obtain the final extraction yield of MCV leaves. At the end of the study, for the CO2 flow rate, it was noticed that the extraction yield improved starting from 5 to 25 g/min and declined after that. Thus the optimum CO2 flow rate was 25 g/min with extraction yield of 31.22%. For the co-solvent, the result of the extraction yield was directly relative to the percentage of the co-solvent. As the percentage of co-solvent increased, the extraction yield was also increased. The optimum extraction yield was 40.93% with 30% co-solvent. For the pressure behaviour, the higher number of pressure magnitude would give higher extraction yield. The optimum extraction yield was 39.47% with 9 pressure magnitudes.