Supercritical CO_2 extraction of cucurbit seed oil

Supercritical CO2 extraction was used to extract oil from cucurbit seed.The effects of the extraction pressure,extraction temperature,CO2 flow rate,extraction time on the cucurbit seed oil yield were investigated,and these factors were optimized by orthogonal test.The optimal conditions were as follows:pressure 25 MPa,temperature 45 ℃,CO2 flow rate 25 kg/h and time 150 min.Compared with traditional solvent extraction,supercritical CO2 extraction improved the oil yield from 42.2% to 54.8%,and reduced the extraction time from 6 h to 150 min.In addition,the oil obtained by supercritical CO2 extraction had good quality with dark red and transparent appearance,and pure flavor.