Extraction of sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua L.) by supercritical carbon dioxide

Abstract

In this study, supercritical carbon dioxide was applied for the extraction of Artemisia annua L. Moreover, the impact of different parameters of supercritical extraction on total yield was investigated and the obtained yields were compared to the ones obtained by conventional procedures, hydrodistillation and Soxhlet extraction. Supercritical fluid extraction at 40 °C and different pressures (100, 200, and 300 bar) resulted in extraction yields that were in the 2.23-5.18 % range, while the yields at 60 °C and the same pressures were in the range 2.43-3.35 %. The yields obtained by the Soxhlet extraction and hydrodistillation were 10.28 % and 0.10 %, respectively. Although supercritical fluid extraction is inferior to Soxhlet extraction in terms of the recovery of lipophilic components of A. annua, the Soxhlet extraction is not the method of choice for obtaining sweet wormwood extracts due to its numerous disadvantages that include the use of toxic solvents, extended extraction time, health safety of the product, the need for further processing, the impossibility of adjusting the selectivity and thus the composition of the product.

Comparative Evaluation of Different Extraction Techniques for Separation of Artemisinin from Sweet Wormwood (Artemisia annua L.)

“…Commercial solvent oil gave the highest extraction yield (84%), while trichloromethane gave the highest content of artemisinin (0.487%). Vidović et al [15], however, compared different parameters of SCO 2 extraction and their impact on the total extraction yield and compared with the Soxhlet extraction and hydrodistillation results. They carried out SCO 2 at 40 • C and different pressures of 100, 200 and 300 bar and also at 60 • C setting the same pressures and obtained an extraction yield in the range 2.23-5.18% and 2.43-3.35%, respectively.…”

“…Using conventional methods (Soxhlet extraction and hydrodistillation) 10.28% and 0.10% of were obtained, respectively. The authors emphasize that traditional ways of extraction have many disadvantages even though the obtained amount of extraction yield is much higher [15]. In recent years, deep eutectic solvents (DESs), first proposed by Abbott et al [16], are becoming more and more popular in the extraction of bioactive components due to their low toxicity and good biodegradability [17][18][19].…”

Comparative Study of the Essential Oil and Hydrosol Composition of Sweet Wormwood (Artemisia annua L.) from Serbia

“…Artemisinin is known to have low aqueous solubility [7] . It can be isolated from herb by solvent [11,12] or CO 2 extraction [13–15] …”

Enzymatic and Microwave Pretreatments and Supercritical CO2 Extraction for Improving Extraction Efficiency and Quality of Origanum vulgare L. spp. hirtum Extracts

“…Supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO 2 ) extraction was established as a superior approach for obtaining aromatic lipophilic compounds from natural resources, compared to conventional methods such as hydrodistillation, steam distillation, and solvent extraction. The characteristics of this extraction process are the application of safe solvents, moderate temperatures which avoid degradation of thermolabile compounds, possibility of adjusting selectivity, better exploitation of resources, and enhanced extraction efficiency [ 12 ]. Moreover, extracts obtained by scCO 2 extraction retained a much better aroma than steam distilled extracts [ 13 ].…”