Solvent Supercritical Fluid Technologies to Extract Bioactive Compounds from Natural Sources: A Review
School of Pharmacy, Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4102, Australia
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Molecules 2017, 22(7), 1186; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules22071186
Received: 16 June 2017
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Revised: 10 July 2017
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Accepted: 12 July 2017
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Published: 14 July 2017
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sub- and Supercritical Fluids and Green Chemistry)
Supercritical fluid technologies offer a propitious method for drug discovery from natural sources. Such methods require relatively short processing times, produce extracts with little or no organic co-solvent, and are able to extract bioactive molecules whilst minimising degradation. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) provides a range of benefits, as well as offering routes to overcome some of the limitations that exist with the conventional methods of extraction. Unfortunately, SFE-based methods are not without their own shortcomings; two major ones being: (1) the high establishment cost; and (2) the selective solvent nature of CO2, i.e., that CO2 only dissolves small non-polar molecules, although this can be viewed as a positive outcome provided bioactive molecules are extracted during solvent-based SFE. This review provides an update of SFE methods for natural products and outlines the main operating parameters for extract recovery. Selected processing considerations are presented regarding supercritical fluids and the development and application of ultrasonic-assisted SFE methods, as well as providing some of the key aspects of SFE scalability.
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Keywords:
plants; carbon dioxide; compressed gas; dense gas; pressure; temperature; scale-up; ultrasound; drug discovery
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MDPI and ACS Style
Khaw, K.-Y.; Parat, M.-O.; Shaw, P.N.; Falconer, J.R. Solvent Supercritical Fluid Technologies to Extract Bioactive Compounds from Natural Sources: A Review. Molecules 2017, 22, 1186. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules22071186
AMA Style
Khaw K-Y, Parat M-O, Shaw PN, Falconer JR. Solvent Supercritical Fluid Technologies to Extract Bioactive Compounds from Natural Sources: A Review. Molecules. 2017; 22(7):1186. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules22071186
Chicago/Turabian StyleKhaw, Kooi-Yeong, Marie-Odile Parat, Paul Nicholas Shaw, and James Robert Falconer. 2017. "Solvent Supercritical Fluid Technologies to Extract Bioactive Compounds from Natural Sources: A Review" Molecules 22, no. 7: 1186. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules22071186
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