Modifier effects on Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) of some Brazilian plants: Antioxidant activity and Economical evaluation

Abstract

Heteropterys aphrodisiaca (nó-de-cachorro), Pyrostegia venusta (“cipó-de-são-joão”) Inga edulis (ingá-cipó), Hymenaea courbaril stilbocarpa (jatobá) and Phaseolus vulgaris L. (beans) have been reported great natural antioxidant properties. The important role of antioxidants in human health has been demonstrated, thus increasing the interest in such products and their demand by consumers. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is a promising technology proved to obtain extracts with high quality by using CO2. Concerning that, the use of simulation software to estimate the cost of manufacturing (COM) allows time reduction in the studying of industrial processes, making possible great capacity of analysis of the process. The aim of this work is to evaluate the quality of the Brazilian plants extracts selected through the antioxidant activity and perform the economical evaluation of the SFE. To evaluate the effectiveness of SFE in obtaining extracts rich in antioxidant, the global yields of these plants were determined at 323K and 35MPa by using CO2 and CO2 plus ethanol (10% v/v) as a modifier. The antioxidant activity was determined by the linking capability of the free radical DPPH (1,1-difenil-2-picrilidrazil). The software SuperPro designer 6.0® was used to simulate the process and to estimate COM of extracts. For the scale-up, the procedure assumed that the industrial scale unit has the same performance as the laboratorial scale unit; this study considered setups with extractor of 0.3 m3. The results indicated that all the global yields increased with the use of ethanol as co-solvent instead of CO2 pure to obtain rich antioxidants extracts by SFE. Comparing all the extracts, jatobá showed the highest antioxidant activity, about 10-14% scavenging ability using CO2 and CO2 + ethanol, respectively. According to the simulation process, all the extracts obtained with the addition of co-solvent showed a lower COM.