Recovery of ergosterol from Agaricus bisporus mushrooms via supercritical fluid extraction: A response surface methodology optimisation

This work uses the response surface methodology to optimise ergosterol recovery from Agaricus bisporus mushrooms by supercritical fluid extraction. The influence of pressure, temperature, co-solvent use, and solvent-to-mushroom mass ratio was evaluated on yield and extract composition. Considering temperature, pressure, and co-solvent volume percentage, predictive models were regressed for extraction yield, ergosterol purity in the recovered fractions, and ergosterol recovery. The co-solvent volumetric fraction was the most influential factor, increasing the extraction yield and reducing the extract's ergosterol purity. A maximum ergosterol extract purity of (547.27 +/- 2.37) mg(ergosterol) & sdot; g(extract)(-1) was obtained at a pressure of 100 bar, temperature of 50 C and co-solvent volume percentage of 5 % v/v. The highest ergosterol recovery was (6.23 +/- 0.06) mg(ergosterol) & sdot; g(dw)(-1) for operating conditions of 244 bar, 56 C, and 8 % v/v of co-solvent. Coefficients of determination close to one were obtained for all models, indicating good agreement with experimental data.