Roberto Fiorentini

Supercritical fluid extraction in sunflower seed technology

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) seed represents an important source for edible oil and its protein fraction is also recognised as valuable for human consumption when suitably purified from polyphenols, which negatively affect colour and nutritional value. On this basis, a main research has been developed, with the aim of testing the technical feasibility of a supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) process involving a preliminary supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2) extraction of oil from sunflower de-hulled seeds, followed by the removal of polyphenols from de-fatted meal by means of ethanol coupled with SC-CO2. The paper reports the experimental protocol followed, together with the kinetics of the extractions, knowledge of which allows the optimisation of working parameters and the determination of process yields.