Recuperación de tocotrienoles de las semillas de Bixa orellana L. mediante extracción supercrítica con CO2

Abstract

Bixa orellana L., commonly known as achiote, is a plant native of tropical areas, its seeds possess the compounds with the highest antioxidant activity of vitamin E, which has increased interest in its study. The objective of the present investigation was to recover pure extracts of these seeds using supercritical fluid technology. The extracts were analyzed for their antioxidant capacity using the DPPH method and the content of tocotrienols present in them by GC-MS. The greatest SC-extraction yield was 3.44% corresponding to the conditions of 47.5 °C, 100 Bar and 20 L/min and the antioxidant activity 357.19 μMET/g ext and 185.95 μM EBHT/g ext. While the greatest yield in relation to the contents of ð-T3 and Ƴ-T3 in extracts was evidenced to conditions of 47.5 °C, 100 Bar and 50 L/min of CO2 corresponding to 10.73% and 0.8% respectively. There by it proved the effectiveness of using supercritical carbon dioxide in the recovery of solvent-free extracts from achiote seeds with an efficient antioxidant capacity