Abstract
Supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) extraction of oil from Kalahari melon seeds was investigated in this study. Response surface methodology was applied to model and optimize the extraction, namely pressure (200–400 bar), temperature (40–80 °C), and supercritical fluid flow rate (10–20 mL/min). Well-fitting models were successfully established for oil recovery (R 2 = 0.9672) and phytosterol concentration (milligrams per 100 g; R 2 = 0.8150) through multiple linear regressions with backward elimination. The effect of supercritical fluid flow rate was the most significant (P 0.05) effect on phytosterol concentration. The optimal processing conditions for oil recovery and phytosterol concentration were pressure of 300 bar, temperature at 40 °C, and supercritical fluid flow rate of 12 mL/min. These optimal conditions yielded a 76.3% oil recovery and 836.5 mg/100 g of phytosterol concentration. The oil content in the Kalahari melon seeds as estimated by Soxhlet extraction was around 30.5/100 g. The phytosterol concentration in the oil extracted with SC-CO2 extraction was 94% higher than that obtained with solvent extraction.
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