Trigonella foenum-graecum L. Seed Oil Obtained by Supercritical CO₂ Extraction

• Published in: Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society 2012-12, Vol.89 (12), p.2269-2278
• Main Authors: Yang, Renming, Wang, Honglun, Jing, Nianhua, Ding, Chenxu, Suo, Yourui, You, Jinmao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agriculture; Antioxidant activity; Antioxidants; Biological and medical sciences; Biomaterials; Biotechnology; Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide removal; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Extraction processes; Fat industries; fatty acid composition; fenugreek; Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum‐graecum L.); Food engineering; Food industries; Food Science; free radical scavengers; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; HPLC‐FLD‐MS; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Oils & fats; Original Paper; Polyunsaturated fatty acids; Response surface methodology; Seed oil; seed oils; Seeds; Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction; supercritical fluid extraction; Trigonella foenum-graecum
• ISSN: 0003-021X; 1558-9331
• DOI: 10.1007/s11746-012-2123-x

Supercritical CO₂ extraction (SC-CO₂) of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) seed oil and its chemical composition and antioxidant activity were investigated. A central composite design combined with response surface methodology was used to study extraction conditions including pressure, temperature, and time. The optimum extraction conditions were 28.5 MPa extraction pressure, 41 °C extraction temperature, and 118 min extraction time, where 3.78 % yield was predicted. Fenugreek seed oil extracted under optimum conditions by SC-CO₂ was mainly composed of 28.3 % C18:3, 33.45 % C18:2, 9.89 % C16, 8.1 % C18:1, 3.7 % C18, 0.71 % C20, and 0.61 % C22. The fenugreek oil was rich in unsaturated fatty acids (nearly 70 % of the total fatty acids), and polyunsaturated fatty acids accounted for 61.42 % (mass percentage) of the total amount. The 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical-scavenging activity increased from 12.5 to 88.4 % when the concentration was increased from 1 to 12 mg/ml. The reducing power of the seed oil was concentration-dependent. The antioxidant activity of the supercritical fluid extraction extract was superior to those obtained by Soxhlet extraction.