Optimization of the Soxhlet Extraction of Oil from Safou Pulp (<em>Dacryodes Deulis</em>)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate Soxhlet extraction of oil from safou using various organic solvents. The safou, fruit of the safou tree (Dacryodes edulis) is very fragile. Post-hervest spoilage, essentially due to the softening of the pulp, can affect 50% of production. Extracting oil from the pulp could offer a way to reduce losses. The safou contains 30-70% of oil in its pulp and about 10% in its seeds. It is a major oilseed plant in the countries of the Congo Bassin, where unfortunately it is still underexploited. One possibility is to extract fresh oil by cold pressing. This oil would be characteristic of a geographical area, the Congo Bassin, much like olive oil is of the Meditarranean. Soxhlet extraction of oil from safou using various organic solvents was carried out to obtain optimization data for the assessment of cold pressing extraction rates. Using a 2 3 factorial design and a centred composite design for the sample studied, we obtained an optimal yield of 52% after 2 h of extraction from a finely ground safou powder containing 8% of residual moisture and with a ratio of pulp mass to solvent volume of 45 g/250 mL.