Aplicaciones de los fluidos supercríticos en la agroindustria

Abstract

A review on the use of supercritical carbon dioxide as a solvent for the bioactive compounds extraction present in vegetables of current and potential use in agroindustrial processes is presented. A description of the extraction with soxhlet, which is used to evaluate the yield in extract and in extraction time of traditional and modern extraction methods is done. Extraction with supercritical fluids is described, operation conditions are showed and bioactive principles extracted from different vegetables raw material reported in the international literature are described. To better described the applications of supercritical fluids in the agroindustry, these are classified in five well defined groups. This allows to get a clear global idea about the possibilities offered by the supercritical fluids to improve the competitiveness of the agroindustry. © 2007 Centro de Información Tecnológica.