High catechins/low caffeine powder from green tea leaves by pressurized liquid extraction and supercritical antisolvent precipitation

摘要

This paper reports a method to produce a solvent-free extract from green tea leaves with high content of catechins and low content of caffeine, in two steps and using only "green" solvents. The method is based on the pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) of the green tea leaves using ethyl lactate as solvent, followed by a selective precipitation procedure using the supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2) antisolvent (SAS) technique.