Supercritical CO2 extraction of bioactive compounds from Hibiscus sabdariffa

Hibiscus sabdariffa is used as potent phytochemical agent due to its phenolic composition. On the other hand, Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) is considered a green extraction technique that provides a selective extraction using a supercritical solvent. In this work, extraction parameters such as temperature, pressure of CO2 and percentage of co-solvent were evaluated on the chemical composition of Hibiscus sabdariffa by Response Surface Methodology (RSM). After that, individual compound concentration was determined by HPLC-ESI-TOFMS. This design, allowed found the optimal conditions for total phenolic and organic acids content. Each chemical group showed different behavior against SFE. Despite organic acids exhibited an irregular trend; the quadratic model was fitted for total phenolic compounds. Therefore, SFE has demonstrated to be a suitable and selective technique to maximize the extraction of several phytochemical compounds from H. sabdariffa calyces.