Recovery of Moringa oleifera Oil from Seed Cake by Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction

Abstract

Commercial Moringa oleifera seed oil has been currently produced via mechanical extraction using a screw press machine. Approximately 30 %wt. of the residue oil remains in the seed cake. Thus, this study aims to examine the effects of pressure and solvent-to-feed (S/F) ratio on the supercritical CO₂ extraction of seed cake obtained from mechanical extraction. The antioxidant activities of extracted oil were determined using the standard in vitro biological assays. The supercritical CO₂ extraction duration of seed cake is shortened because the mechanical extraction reduces oil content before performing supercritical CO₂ extraction. At 50 °C and 30.0 MPa, S/F ratios of 0.4 /min and 1.0 /min have corresponded to an extraction duration of 300 min and 180 min, respectively. Up to 90 %wt. of the oil content in the seed cake can be recovered at 30.0 MPa, 50 °C, and after 200 min of extraction duration. Regardless of the extraction pressure, the antioxidant activities of M. oleifera seed oil were maximized at 60 °C.