Effect of Extraction Process on Composition, Antioxidant and Antibacterial Activity of Oil from Yellow Passion Fruit (Passiflora edulis Var. Flavicarpa) Seeds

Abstract

In this study, the effect of different extraction methods including subcritical fluid extraction (SubFE) with compressed propane at 30 and 60 °C and pressures from 2 to 8 MPa, a solvent extraction using Soxhlet (SE) apparatus with two different solvents (n-hexane and ethanol) and the ultrassound-assisted extraction (UAE) with ethanol as solvent on the extraction yield, physicochemical properties, fatty acids profile and tocopherol content, antioxidant and antibacterial activities of organic yellow passion fruit (Passiflora edulis var. flavicarpa). Higher yields were obtained by SE with n-hexane (26.12%) and compressed propane at 30 °C and 8 MPa (24.68%). The physicochemical parameters were consistent with the requirements of Codex Alimentarius regarding the most popular plant oils. Higher content of unsaturated fatty acids (86.65%) and linoleic acid (68.99%) was obtained by compressed propane at 30 °C and 2 MPa. The oils obtained by Soxhlet with n-hexane and compressed propane at 60 °C and 2 MPa showed higher tocopherol content (8.22 and 5.98 mg/100 goil, respectively). All oil samples presented high antioxidant performance and showed antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Salmonella enteritidis, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus. This study further confirms that organic yellow passion fruit seed oils represent a good source of essential unsaturated fatty acids and demonstrated that there is an opportunity to add value for this agroindustrial waste with the use of unconventional extraction methods such as compressed propane, a green recovery technology yet still unexplored for seed oil extraction.