An original approach for lipophilic natural products extraction: Use of liquefied n-butane as alternative solvent to n-hexane

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Rapinel, Vincent | Rombaut, Natacha | Rakotomanomana, Njara | Vallageas, Alain | Cravotto, Giancarlo | Chemat, Farid

Edité par CCSD ; Elsevier -

International audience. Recent trends in food extraction techniques have largely focused on finding solutions that minimize the use of toxic solvents or to find alternatives for n-hexane. As an original solution, a new process for extraction of natural product using liquefied gases has been developed at laboratory scale. The applicability of this new process was demonstrated using n-butane as alternative solvent to n-hexane. Extraction of lipophilic natural products such as carrot oleoresin, caraway aromas and sunflower oil was assessed using liquefied n-butane. COSMO-RS simulations allowed determination of the relative solubility of the lipophilic compounds in liquefied n-butane and n-hexane. This theoretical approach was validated with extraction experiments on carrots, caraway seeds and sunflower seeds. Compositions of the extracts were comparable but the extract yields were lower using n-butane. For example the extraction yields were, with n-butane and with n-hexane respectively, 36.9% and 53.4% for sunflower seeds oil, 10.9% and 15.0% for caraway seed essential oil, 25.7% and 55.8% for carrots oleoresin. However the extracts obtained by using n-butane are directly free of solvents and also food grade, as it is an authorized solvent for foodstuff production.

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