Abstract
A supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) method has been developed for the extraction of lipids in bilberry. Experimental design was used to optimize pressure, temperature and extraction time using CO2 as solvent. Best SFE condition for total lipids was 450 bar, 60 °C and 45 min. The SFE method was compared to conventional Bligh & Dyer (B&D) extraction. The amount of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) was found to be 4.84 ± 0.06 mg and 4.564 ± 0.003 mg per g of the freeze-dried bilberry sample for the developed SFE and B&D methods, respectively, while the amount of total lipids was found to be 54.40 ± 6.06 mg and 65.70 ± 0.67 mg per g of sample for SFE and B&D, respectively. This discrepancy between FAME and total lipids could be explained by the presence of wax esters, sterol esters, carotenoids and phospholipids, as determined by supercritical fluid chromatography.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11746-015-2680-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) is grown in central and northern Europe, northern Asia, and North America [1]
Our results show that the temperature had a positive influence on the amount of total lipids extracted probably because of increasing the vapor pressure of lipids
central composite design (CCD) plots for total lipids and fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) are shown in Figure S2 and S3, respectively, in the supplementary material
Summary
Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) is grown in central and northern Europe, northern Asia, and North America [1]. Extensive research has been carried out regarding the chemical composition of bilberry. Most attention has been focused on antioxidants in general [7], anthocyanins [2], and phenolic compounds [8] while the data about the lipid profile is limited [9]. Bunea et al used a modified Folch method to extract total lipids from bilberry [9]. The average total lipids content was 650 mg per 100 g of fresh fruit. The main fatty acids (FA) extracted were polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) such as linoleic (18:2) and linolenic (18:3) acids. PUFA have health benefits in the prevention of diseases such as cardiovascular disorders [10] and diabetes [11]. It has been shown that neat supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) is good for the extraction of neutral lipids, whereas a co-solvent such as ethanol is needed in order to extract polar lipids such as phospholipids [12]
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