Efficient extraction of vicine from faba beans using reactive system of high-pressure CO2/water

Vicine from faba bean is a causative agent of favism, a genetic disease, which manifests as hemolytic anemia. Despite that low vicine varieties of faba bean exist, they are not widely cultivated. Several extraction methods of vicine from faba beans have been presented in the literature, however, their low efficiency associated to time-consuming and costly process limit the practical use. This work for the first time addresses the employment of high-pressure CO2-assisted extraction of the pyrimidine glycosides from the faba bean. For this purpose, the effect of temperature, CO2 pressure and time on vicine extraction was scrutinized using Box-Behnken design of experiments. Response surface methodology was used to determine the optimal extraction conditions. At 40.7 degrees C, 8.1 bar of CO2 pressure and 5.1 min of extraction, 81% of total vicine should be extracted from faba bean.