Extraction of perillyl alcohol in Korean orange peel by supercritical CO2

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) in a pilot plant was carried out to extract perilyl alcohol (POH) from Korean orange peel. The extract from the powder of Korean orange peel was obtained by supercritical CO2 at operating conditions of 50 degrees C, 200 bar, and 6 CO2 kg/h/kg sample. Most of the POH was extracted within 14 hours in the experiment. The yield of extract containing POH was 2.5% based on the dry powder of the orange peel. The content of POH in the extracts was 2.8 x 10(-3) (wt%) by GC analysis based on the dry powder, which indicated that SFE was approximately 30 times more efficient than the solvent-extraction method previously reported. A brief comparison of SFE and solvent extraction was made, The SFE extracts were further purified by open tubular chromatography to confirm POH in the extracts.