Characterization of carrot root oil arising from supercritical fluid carbon dioxide extraction

Carrot root oil (SCO), obtained by supercritical fluid carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) extraction, was characterized and compared to a commercial carrot oil (MCO) and a virgin olive oil (VOO) (cv. Coratina). SCO showed much higher contents of carotenes, phenolics, waxes, phytosterols, and sesquiterpene and monoterpene volatiles. In SCO, the most prominent components present in the fully investigated analytical fractions (fatty acids, triglycerides, waxes, phytosterols, long-chain aliphatic alcohols, superior triterpene alcohols, and volatiles) were, respectively, linolenic acid, trilinolein, waxes C38, beta-sitosterol, campesterol and stigmasterol, 1-hexacosanol, 24-methylencycloartanol and cycloartenol, beta-caryophyllene, alpha-humulene, alpha-pinene, and sabinene. In VOO, the major constituents of the above analytical classes were, respectively, oleic acid, trilinolein, waxes C36, unsaturated volatile C6 aldehydes (trans-2-hexenal most markedly), and the same prominent sterols and superior alcohols found in SCO. In MCO, which also contained a proportion of unknown plant oil, several components showed magnitudes that were lower compared to SCO but higher with respect to VOO. The last had the aliphatic and triterpene alcohol concentration higher compared to that of both SCO and MCO. Several chemometric methods, applied to different analytical data sets, proved to be effective in grouping the three oil kinds.