Liquefied gas extraction: A new method for the recovery of terpenoids from agroindustrial and forest wastes

Abstract

Terpenoids are important ingredients in perfumery, and terpene residues have shown potential as new sources of these compounds. This study aimed to apply gas extraction with liquefied petroleum gas (butane/propane) as a clean technology to extract terpenes from agroindustrial and forest wastes. The extracts obtained were characterized by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), and compared to extracts obtained using traditional organic solvent extraction (hexane and dichloromethane:n-pentane). The oil extraction yields were 5.36% for the orange waste, 2.1% for the apple pomace, 2.32% for the pine needle and 0.6% for the pine wood shavings. The extract obtained using this new method on orange waste contained the highest concentration of limonene (95.32g/100g of extract), α-pinene (0.40) and β-pinene (0.23) among all of the solvents as well as the largest extracted amount (0.051g/g of dry substrate). Based on the GC–MS analyses, the LPG extraction displayed less decomposition or modification of the compounds.