A Novel Process for Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Nutraceuticals Enriched with Carotenoids

摘要

An innovative process has been developed for the recovery of carotenoids from natural sources such as lycopene from tomato,beta-carotene from carrot,and lutein from marigold flowers.The conventional supercritical fluid extraction(SCFE)of these active ingredients(AI)from natural sources requires supercritical carbon dioxide(SC CO2)at very high(400-700 bar)pressures,in addition to an elaborate process for feed preparation.This necessitates long time for removal of a large quantity of moisture and elaborate feed pretreatment to release AI from the bound state in the cellular matrix.In order to obviate these difficulties,an improved feed pretreatment protocol has been evolved for selective SC CO2 fractionation at relatively moderate condition of pressure and for lessening the time of extraction,facilitating enrichment of AI in the extracted nutraceuticals with high recovery efficiency(92-97%)even at lower pressures(<350 bar).SC CO2 at 300 bar and 60°C yields highest purity of 21% lycopene in one fraction whereas 13.6% lycopene as average purity of the extract with 81% recovery in 3 h.It has been observed that the present process of SCFE is useful for enrichment of any AI,including all carotenoids,e.g.beta-carotene and lutein,and facilitates higher recovery efficiency of nutraceuticals with much higher concentrations of carotenoids at relatively lower pressures compared to the existing processes.