Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Carotenoids from Vegetable Waste Matrices

Abstract

The aim of this work was to evaluate a previously-developed model on supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) for carotenoid recovery from carrot peels on various carotenoid-rich fruit and vegetable wastes. To this end, 15 matrices, including flesh and peels of sweet potato, tomato, apricot, pumpkin and peach, as well as flesh and wastes of green, yellow and red peppers, were submitted to SFE under optimised conditions (59 °C, 350 bar, 15 g/min CO2, 15.5% (v/v) ethanol as co-solvent, 30 min of extraction time). The obtained extracts were characterised for their total carotenoid content, antioxidant activity and total carotenoid recovery (TCR). TCR values were greater than 90% w/w for most samples, with β-carotene being the most successfully extracted compound (TCRs 88–100% w/w). More polar carotenoids, such as lutein and lycopene, exhibited lower TCRs. A comparison with literature data suggested that carotenoid extraction is partially dependent on the composition of vegetable matrices, specifically on polysaccharide and moisture content. The results indicated that the optimised SFE conditions can be used as a general model for carotenoid extraction from various fruit and vegetable matrices and as a viable method for adding value to these waste streams by generating carotenoid-rich extracts.

Supercritical Fluids: A Promising Technique for Biomass Pretreatment and Fractionation

“…Carotenoids extraction of various vegetable waste matrices was investigated using scCO 2 and ethanol as co-solvent (de Andrade Lima et al, 2019). The optimal process conditions were 59 • C and 350 bar using 15.5% ethanol, scCO 2 at a flowrate of 15 g·min −1 and a run time of 30 min.…”

Extending the design space in solvent extraction – from supercritical fluids to pressurized liquids using carbon dioxide, ethanol, ethyl lactate, and water in a wide range of proportions

“…The extraction time varied from 30 min to 5 hours depending on the extraction conditions. [40][41][42][43][44] In this study however, we selected published carefully optimised extraction methods based on PLE to conduct a comparison with the herein developed methods. The solvent to sample ratios were kept similar to enable a somewhat fair comparison between the methods.…”

Extração supercrítica de oleorresina de resíduo de pimenta Capsicum annuum (Jalapenho)

“…Os carotenoides estão presentes em frutas e vegetais de cores vermelhas e laranjas (DE ANDRADE LIMA et al, 2019). Segundo Giuffrida e colaboradores (2013), esses compostos são encontrados nos cloroplastos de pimentas vermelhas, sendo um dos responsáveis por essa coloração.…”

“…Devido à insolubilidade de fibras, proteínas e óleos, o resíduo gerado pelo processamento industrial de pimenta pode afetar economicamente e ambientalmente de forma negativa (CHOUAIBI et al, 2019). Utilizar os resíduos de pimentas para a obtenção de compostos bioativos 7 pode ser uma alternativa interessante por diminuir o custo com o tratamento de resíduos, ser uma matéria-prima barata (SILVA et al, 2013), fazer o reaproveitamento de material que seria descartado e a geração de subproduto de valor agregado (AZABOU et al, 2017;DE ANDRADE LIMA et al, 2019;SANDOVAL-CASTRO et al, 2017).…”

“…A utilização de resíduos na obtenção desses compostos é de interesse pela geração de subproduto de valor agregado, utilização de matéria-prima barata, diminuição do custo de tratamento de resíduos, dentre outras (AZABOU et al, 2017;DE ANDRADE LIMA et al, 2019). No caso de pimentas, seu processamento gera resíduos que apresentam compostos insolúveis, tais como fibras e óleos e o descarte desses compostos sem nenhum tratamento pode trazer consequências economicamente e ambientalmente negativas (CHOUAIBI et al, 2019).…”