Bioeconomic potential of buriti (Mauritia flexuosa): Composition, bioactive properties, oxidative stability, nutritional quality, and economic assessment of supercritical CO₂ oil

This study investigates the bioeconomic potential of buriti ( Mauritia flexuosa ) valorization through supercritical CO₂ extraction conducted at 40 °C and 400 bar. The proximate composition, bioactive profile (physicochemical properties, carotenoids, vitamin E, and fatty acid composition), antioxidant capacity, oxidative stability, and economic assessment of the supercritical buriti oil were systematically evaluated. The proximate composition of the freeze-dried pulp revealed high lipid (35.48 ± 0.08%), carbohydrate (46.94 ± 0.48%), and protein (8.69 ± 0.84%) contents. Following supercritical CO₂ extraction, the defatted press cake exhibited a lipid reduction of up to 90%, with concentrated carbohydrate content (35.14 ± 0.22%), suggesting its potential as a nutraceutical ingredient and reinforcing the relevance of full biomass valorization. The supercritical buriti oil exhibited a high extraction yield (21.28%), low acid value (1.12 ± 0.01 mg KOH/g), and low peroxide value (10.4 ± 0.01 meq/kg), along with high concentrations of carotenoids (228.75 ± 3,26 mg/100 g) and vitamin E (232 ± 0.01 mg α-tocopherol/100 g). The lipid profile was dominated by oleic acid (54.08%), resulting in excellent nutritional quality, as reflected by a high hypocholesterolemic/hypercholesterolemic ratio (h/H = 8.70), and elevated antioxidant activity (1303.33 ± 2,66 µmol TE/100 g). For the economic assessment, oil productivity and cost of manufacture (COM) were simulated for two extractor bed scales (0.01 L and 100 L) under different selling price scenarios. While the laboratory-scale operation proved economically unfeasible, the 100 L scenario presented favorable economic indicators under the engineering assumptions adopted for the scale-up methodology. Therefore, these results should be interpreted as preliminary estimates of the process's economic potential rather than direct predictions of industrial-scale performance.