Effects of process parameters on supercritical CO2 extraction of total phenols from strawberry (Arbutus unedo L.) fruits: An optimization study

The aim of this work was to optimize total phenolic yield of Arbutus unedo fruits using supercritical fluid extraction. A Box-Behnken statistical design was used to evaluate the effect of various values of pressure (50-300 bar), temperature (30-80 degrees C) and concentration of ethanol as co-solvent (0-20%) by CO2 flow rate of 15 g/min for 60 min. The most effective variable was co-solvent ratio (p<0.005). Evaluative criteria for both dependent variables (total phenols and radical scavenging activity) in the model were assigned maximum. Optimum extraction conditions were elicited as 60 bar, 48 degrees C and 19.7% yielding 25.72 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE) total phenols/g extract and 99.9% radical scavenging capacity, which were higher than the values obtained by conventional water (24.89 mg/g; 83.8%) and ethanol (15.12 mg/g; 95.8%) extractions demonstrating challenges as a green separation process with improved product properties for industrial applications.