Research Activities on Supercritical Fluid Science in Food Biotechnology

Abstract

This article serves as an overview, introducing the currently popular area of supercritical fluids and their uses in food biotechnology. Within each application, and wherever possible, the basic principles of the technique, as well as a description of the history, instrumentation, methodology, uses, problems encountered, and advantages over the traditional, non-supercritical methods are given. Most current commercial application of the supercritical extraction involve biologically-produced materials; the technique may be particularly relevant to the extraction of biological compounds in cases where there is a requirement for low-temperature processing, high mass-transfer rates, and negligible carrying over of the solvent into the final product. Special applications to food processing include the decaffeination of green coffee beans, the production of hops extracts, the recovery of aromas and flavors from herbs and spices, the extraction and fractionation of edible oils, and the removal of contaminants, among others. New advances, in which the extraction is combined with reaction or crystallization steps, may further increase the attractiveness of supercritical fluids in the bioprocess industries. To develop and establish a novel and effective alternative to heating treatment, the lethal action of high hydrostatic pressure CO(2) on microorganisms, with none or only a minimal heating process, has recently received a great deal of attention.

The potential of metabolic fingerprinting as a tool for the modernisation of TCM preparations

“…This is an extraction technique which takes advantage of the enhanced solvating and penetrating capacity of gases or liquids in their critical phases (ASTM, 2006). The unique properties of supercritical fluids were observed more than a century ago, but only in the last four decades SFE has emerged as an extraction technique (Khosravi-Darani, 2010). Advantages of SFE in contrast to conventional extraction are (i) superior extraction efficiency and selectivity for low polar phytochemicals.…”

Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Plant Flavors and Fragrances

“…A thoughtful comparison of the extraction kinetic has been established and discussed, in terms of the extraction yields attained in the separators, the variation of the essential oil composition with time and the content of key bioactive substances identified in the different fractions [33][34][35]. Furthermore, to develop and establish novel and effective alternatives to heating treatment, the lethal action of high hydrostatic pressure CO 2 on microorganisms, with none or only a minimal heating process, has recently received a great deal of attention [36].…”

“…As a result of the typical construction of the collection vials and further fractionation of the crude SFE extract via SPE, single variety hop oil essence, highly enriched in oxygenated sesquiterpenoids ("spicy" compounds), were obtained [61] Volatile flavor components of tea flowers (Camellia sinensis) were isolated by SFE and showed the presence of phenylethanol (31), linalool (32), (E)-linalool oxide furanoid (33), epoxy linalool (34), geraniol (35) and hotrienol (36) as the major components. Acetophenone (37) and the pheromone germacrene D (38) were also.…”

Green Extraction Methods for Polyphenols from Plant Matrices and Their Byproducts: A Review

“…European Food Safety Authority and the United States Food and Drug Administration have assigned CO 2 a generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status. CO 2 is the most widely used SC solvent because of its particular features, notably its economic inexpensiveness and GRAS status (Pereira and Meireles 2009;Herrero and others 2010;Khosravi-Darani 2010). CO 2 is pumped as a fluid at critical conditions (T c < 278.15 K and P c = 5.7 MPa) to the extraction vessel.…”