Supplements & functional ingredients Cleaner, greener
has had a lot of bad press. Often referred to within the context of global warming, the gas occurs naturally in the environment and does have positive applications, such as carbonating soda water and beer, for example. One of its more innovative uses is extracting bioactive compounds from plant-based materials, from polyphenols to antioxidants. Many functional food and drink manufacturers have been looking into supercritical CO2
C O2 extraction to
extraction evolved to make pharmaceuticals, essential oils and natural flavourings. The process can be so precise that the CBD industry uses it to separate high-purity cannabinoids from the plant’s stringently regulated psychotropic compound, THC.
meet the growing demand for powerful, pure and ‘natural’ ingredients. First used commercially to decaffeinate coffee in the 1970s, supercritical CO2
As well as being precise, the process is cleaner than traditional compound extraction methods, which employ chemical solvents such as hexane and ethanol. These petrol-derived substances can
extraction
The rise of functional foods has increased demand for bioactive compounds with potential health benefits. At the same time, pressure for ‘more natural’ ingredients is intensifying – from both health-conscious consumers and regulators. These trends are fuelling the advance of supercritical CO2
extraction: a cleaner, greener way of extricating functional
ingredients. Lorraine Mullaney speaks to Hans Schonemann, chief technology officer for Phasex, and R&D specialist Riccardo Destefano at Separeco, to find out more.
leave toxic residues in the end product, which can be detrimental to human health. As a naturally occurring non-toxic gas, CO2
is an approved
food-grade solvent, which makes it a safer option for extracting compounds destined for human ingestion or application to the skin. “If you’re processing with petroleum-based solvents, they will leave a residue. CO2
is a gas,
not a solvent, which means your products will meet USDA [United States Department of Agriculture dietary] guidelines,” explains Hans Schonemann, chief technology officer for Phasex, a US-based supercritical CO2
extraction company focusing on natural products, biopharmaceuticals and polymers.
Best of both forms In its supercritical state, CO2
acts like both a gas
and a liquid. This means it can be used as a solvent to selectively extract desired compounds from materials. The supercritical state is achieved by precisely controlling the temperature and pressure to a point at which CO2
’s liquid and vapour phases
become identical. The low critical temperature and pressure required to work with CO2
preserves the
nature of heat-sensitive compounds such as plant- derived flavours, which can be extracted with minimal alteration to their natural state. In contrast, the levels of heat required for traditional solvent-based methods can alter the nature of
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Ingredients Insight /
www.ingredients-insight.com
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