Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction of Valuable Compounds from Citrus junos Seed

Extraction of Citrus junos seed was carried out at temperatures of 40-70 degrees C, pressures of 20-50 MPa, and CO2 flow rate of 3 ml/min with supercritical carbon dioxide to obtain the valuable compounds. Seed oil was also extracted by using Soxhlet extraction with hexane as the solvent during 360 min for comparison with the efficiency of supercritical carbon dioxide extraction. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to analyze the components present in the seed oil and Gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID) was used to quantify their amounts. Among the conditions studied, the highest extraction yield was obtained at higher pressure and temperature ( 50 MPa and 70 C). The extraction yield was about 29.5% of the seed, which was almost comparable to that of hexane Soxhlet extraction (33.8%). The results of the GC-MS analyses showed that the seed oil extracted contained N-methylanthranyl acid methyl, fatty acids (such as palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acid), and physiologically active substances of beta-sitosterol and squalene.