High pressure extraction and its application in the extraction of bio-active compounds: A review

Extraction of bio-active compounds has become very important as these compounds show various characteristics which are beneficial to health, such as antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic and antimicrobial properties. High pressure extraction (HPE) can be included among the recent and novel methods for extracting bioactive compounds from natural materials. The high pressure is applied to stimulate various phenomena (such as transition of phase from one form to another, change in reaction dynamics, change in molecular structure, etc.) which induces a reaction in a direction promoting a decrease in volume hence resulting in the enhancement of extraction efficiency. This article presents a comprehensive review of HPE and its applications in various food products and wastes. The review highlights that HPE is potential option for conventional extraction methods to meet the industrial demand. As most of the research has been conducted at laboratory scale level therefore recommendations for scaling up of the HPE process are made to evaluate the performance at commercial levels.