Effects of Supercritical Fluid Extraction Parameters on Unsaturated Fatty Acid Yields of Pistacia terebinthus Berries

Abstract

AbstractUtilization of renewable resources and development of new processes aimed at converting these materials into value added bio‐products are gaining more emphasis. The scope of this study was to optimize supercritical CO2 extraction (SFE) parameters such as pressure, temperature and flow rate for the yields of unsaturated fatty acids from Pistacia terebinthus berries by a Box‐Behnken statistical design. All samples were analyzed for fatty acids by GC‐FID. The most effective variables were pressure (P < 0.005) and flow rate (P ≤ 0.005). Maximizing the evaluative criteria for dependent variables (oleic acid, linoleic acid and linolenic acid), optimal conditions were determined to be 240 bar, 60 °C and a flow rate of 16 g/min yielding 51.2% oleic acid, 26.5% linoleic acid and 1.0% linolenic acid. The amounts of unsaturated fatty acids in SFE samples (81.3%) were higher than the hexane (74.3%) and were similar to that of cold press samples (80.1%). High concentrations of unsaturated fatty acids can indicate the utilization of the berries as a major dietary source and demonstrate challenges for industrial application of SFE as a green technology.