Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) using carbon dioxide is a popular technique for oil extraction due to its high extraction efficiency, short extracting time, lower refining requirement and absence of chemical residues or contamination in the extracted oils. In this work, an attempt has been made to extract oil from a local variety of cottonseed using this technique. The effects of the extraction parameters of pressure, temperature and time of extraction of oil were optimized by using statistical techniques such as central composite rotate design (CCRD) and response surface methodology (RSM), with a view to maximize the oil yield with minimum gossypol extraction. From this study, it could be concluded that the yield of cottonseed oil can be improved at pressure higher than 550 bar, in the temperature zone of 70-80 degrees C and extracting time of 2-3 h. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.