Effects of process parameters on supercritical CO2 extraction of total phenols from strawberry (Arbutus unedo L.)...

The aim of this work was to optimize total phenolic yield of Arbutus unedo fruits using supercritical fluid extraction. A Box-Behnken statistical design was used to evaluate the effect of various values of pressure (50-300 bar), temperature (30-80°C) and concentration of ethanol as co-solvent (0-20%) by CO2 flow rate of 15 g/min for 60 min. The most effective variable was co-solvent ratio (p<0.005). Evaluative criteria for both dependent variables (total phenols and radical scavenging activity) in the model were assigned maximum. Optimum extraction conditions were elicited as 60 bar, 48°C and 19.7% yielding 25.72 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE) total phenols/g extract and 99.9% radical scavenging capacity, which were higher than the values obtained by conventional water (24.89 mg/g; 83.8%) and ethanol (15.12 mg/g; 95.8%) extractions demonstrating challenges as a green separation process with improved product properties for industrial applications.