Evaluation of the Effect of Different Co-Solvent Mixtures on the Supercritical CO2 Extraction of the Phenolic Compounds Present in Moringa oleifera Lam. Leaves

Abstract

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), using CO2, is a novel, sustainable and very efficient technique for the recovery of highly apolar compounds. However, the recovery of phenolic compounds requires the use of different co-solvent combinations such as water and ethanol to enhance the recovery of these compounds through the optimization of a number of variables. In this sense, the effect of pressure (100, 150 and 200 bar), temperature (50, 65 and 80 °C), extraction time (30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 min) and the effect of the different percentages of ethanol and water as co-solvents on the composition and phenolic content of moringa leaf extracts were evaluated. Six major flavonoids were identified by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to a quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometer (UHPLC-Q-ToF-MS). Pressure and temperature had a significant effect on the phenolic composition of the extracts, as well as on their concentrations. The highest concentration of total flavonoids compounds (TFCs) was obtained by using a mixture of CO2 and water of 50:50 (v/v) at 100 bar, at 65 °C after a 120 min extraction time that produced a concentration of 11.66 mg ± 0.02 mg TFC g−1 sample, which corresponds to 89.0% of the total flavonoids of the sample, obtained by exhaustive extraction.