Extraction of essential oils from Malva-Branca leaf (Sida cordifolia) with therapeutic potential using supercritical technology.

• Grant number: 22/15533-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2023
• End date: February 29, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Chemical Technology
• Principal Investigator: Leandro Ferreira Pinto
• Grantee: Níkolas Ramos Bernardes
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia e Ciências (FEC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rosana. Rosana , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Non-transmissible chronic diseases, infections by pathogenic agents, immunosuppressive diseases and physiological dysfunctions resulting from or enhanced by the effects of oxidative stress affect the world's population as a whole. These diseases bring several physical and psychological limitations and have increasingly concerned the scientific community, governments and international health agencies. The pharmaceutical industry has several drugs available for the treatment of these pathologies. However, their long-term use can cause side effects and adverse reactions that often inhibit patients from using these drugs, and certain projections also indicate that the high costs related to their production and procurement can make it increasingly difficult access by the population in the coming decades. Sida cordifolia (Malva-Branca) is a plant matrix that provides secondary metabolites with therapeutic potential for the treatment of such diseases. Obtaining these extracts must be performed efficiently and safely to optimize their clinical effectiveness. The extraction process with pressurized fluids can be used to obtain essential oils from these matrices. This process, in turn, has a lower environmental impact, generating products free of residual solvents associated with lower costs compared to existing conventional techniques. Thus, the objective of this project is to obtain essential oil from plant matrices with therapeutic potential using innovative and green technology, without leaving residual solvents in the extract. With this, the aim is to contribute to an innovative front in the process of obtaining essential oil from the leaves of Sida cordifolia (Malva-Branca), evaluating the yields and chemical composition of the extracts obtained using non-toxic pressurized fluids (CO2).