Kinetic study of the extraction of essential oils from Tropaeolum majus (Capuchin) using supercritical CO2

• Grant number: 19/25096-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): July 01, 2020
• Effective date (End): June 30, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Leandro Ferreira Pinto
• Grantee: Gabriel Corrêa
• Host Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rosana. Rosana , SP, Brazil

Abstract

It is estimated that 20% of the adult world population suffers from anxiety. This disease is manifested by feelings of psychic malaise, translated by a variety of somatic disorders related to autonomic hyperactivity. The pharmaceutical industry has a large therapeutic arsenal for anxiety, however, generating numerous adverse effects on its users. Thus, the search for safer and more effective alternatives finds in medicinal plants a promising source. Extracts obtained from Capuchin (Tropaeolum majus) are indicated in the literature as potential matrices of compounds with anxiolytic properties. Obtaining compounds with therapeutic properties demands a great deal of separation techniques, especially purification, as the extracted compound is required to be free of solvent residues and to have a high degree of purity. The extraction technique with pressurized fluids to obtain the extracts from the vegetable matrices presents the possibility of substitution of organic solvents by non toxic gases, such as carbon dioxide, which results in an extraction with less environmental impact and obtaining a product free of residual solvents. In this sense, this research proposal aims to obtain extracts of plant matrices from the use of supercritical CO2. An evaluation of the variables of the supercritical extraction process (temperature, pressure and extraction flow) of the plant matrices will be performed to verify the conditions that maximize the amount of extracts (lipid fraction) obtained. The extracts will be evaluated according to chromatographic analysis, according to the identification and / or quantification of secondary metabolites.