Journal of Supercritical Fluids, Vol.107, 75-83, 2016
Supercritical CO2 extraction of cumbaru oil (Dipteryx alata Vogel) assisted by ultrasound: Global yield, kinetics and fatty acid composition
Cumbaru almond is obtained from a plant of the Brazilian Cerrado and contains elevated amount of oil. The aims of this work were to extract the cumbaru oil by supercritical CO2 extraction with and without ultrasound (US) and to evaluate the process by means of global yield, modeling extraction kinetics and fatty acids profile. An experimental design was proposed to obtain cumbaru oil by supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) without US. The process was evaluated at 40,50 and 60 degrees C and 15,25 and 35 MPa. The best conditions to recover cumbaru oil were 40 and 50 degrees C at 35 MPa, in which 22.6 and 22.8 g of oil/g of raw material were obtained, respectively. The fatty acid profile was not affected by variations in SFE conditions. The BET-based model and broken-intact cell model were able to fit and represent adequately the SC-CO2 extraction kinetics of cumbaru oil (AARD < 10%). The oil presented high concentration of oleic (similar to 49%) and linoleic (similar to 26%) acids. A higher initial rate of fatty acids was achieved when the extraction process was assisted by US, and US did not modify the fatty acid composition of the whole oil and the final global yield. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.