Determining supercritical CO2 solubility of pitanga extract main components

• Grant number: 06/05810-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2006
• End date: June 30, 2007
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Food Science and Technology - Food Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Alessandra Lopes de Oliveira
• Grantee: Fernando Marques Putrino
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims experimentally to determine the solubility of two volatile compounds in high concentration in the extract from Pitanga obtained by supercritical extraction. In preliminary tests, it was verified that the aromatic fraction of the Pitanga extract is rich in monoterpenes (75.3%) as trans-beta-ocimene, cis-ocimene, the isomer beta-ocimene and beta-pinene (Oliveira et. al., 2006), however it is necessary yet to characterize the extract obtained from supercritical CO2 to verify if this characteristic it is confirmed. At the present moment the extracts, from supercritical extraction, are being analyzed and the two components in high concentration will be its solubility in supercritical CO2 measure for dynamic and static methods. The solubility data will be thermodynamically fit by use of a model that uses the equation of state of Peng-Robinson (1976) and the composition dependent mixing rule of Mathias et al. (1991). (AU)