Supercritical CO₂ extraction of triterpenes from rosemary leaves: Kinetics and modelling

The pentacyclic triterpene α,β-amyrin is a promising bioactive natural product. Supercritical fluid extraction and fractionation are used to obtain pentacyclic triterpenes compounds from dried rosemary leaves. Experiments were conducted at 50°C and 180 bar, and the fractionation of the extract was accomplished in two separators. The shift to a diffusion-controlled regime occurred when 65% of the total oil was extracted. The moments analysis of kinetic curves indicated that the contribution of the axial dispersion, the external transfer and the internal transfer were 9.16%, 80.24% and 10.58%, respectively. The overall extraction curve was represented using three mathematical models.