Supercritical CO₂ Extraction of Phytochemical Compounds from Mimosa pudica Linn

Abstract

The extraction of phytochemicals from Mimosa pudica Linn (MPL) using supercritical CO₂(SC-CO₂) has been studied, and the results are presented in this article. The significant variables affecting this extraction were investigated by design of experiment analysis. The effect of temperature and pressure on phytochemical yields was explored by measuring the total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and total alkaloid compound (TAC). The maximum yield of TPC, TFC, and TAC extracted from MPL was 74.83 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g dry MPL, 30.93 mg quercetin equivalent/g dry MPL, and 14.23 mg hyoscyamine (HE)/g dry MPL, respectively. The work of Chrastil was used to correlate the experimental data. It was found that temperature and pressure greatly affected the yield of phytochemicals, whereas the effect of extraction time on the extraction yield diminished after 2 h. Qualitative analysis of the phytochemicals extracted from MPL was performed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The SC-CO₂ extraction was more selective than Soxhlet extraction based on the HPLC spectra.

Keywords:

• Alkaloid
• Extraction
• Flavonoid
• Mimosa pudica Linn
• Phenolic
• Supercritical CO₂

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. David Barkley from N. Simonson & Company (http://www.virtlab.com) for assistance in language editing.