(84g) Green Pathways for Supercritical and Biphasic Extraction of Medically Active Components from Plant Biomass

Supercritical CO₂ can be used exclusively, with the enhancement of an appropriately green co-solvent, or as part of a biphasic system such as SC CO₂-H₂O to obtain active components from a biological matrix. These methods of green processing are increasingly requisite where the production of natural products is concerned. Given the emergent benefits of many natural products and the expansion of the market as a result, it stands to reason that a processing technology that preserves or enhances the recovery of medically active ingredients is highly desirable. General trends point to a more progressive population that, in general, lives longer and strives for greater health outcomes. This has led to a phasing out of older technologies, such as traditional organic solvent extractions, involved in processing for medical purposes. Natural medicine directions are also on the rise, with many more people seeking out natural remedies to issues as opposed to synthetic prescription drugs. Supercritical fluids have been used to bring many products to market and the aforementioned modifications to the methods stand to further enhance the capabilities further. Pressures up to 300 bar are used with temperatures up to 60° Celsius. Extraction can be further modified by polar co-solvents to increase the solubility of polar compounds in the CO₂ extraction media. Simultaneous biphasic extraction is to be utilized to obtain 2 extract fractions, involving extraction via warm pressurized water and SC CO₂ phases. Multiple analysis techniques are required to quantify both the amount of extract and the composition. Gas chromatography as well Liquid chromatography paired with mass spec are standard for identifying the extract composition and further concentration and fractionation is carried out with preparative scale liquid chromatography. A variety of modeling tools such as Matlab, COMSOL, and Aspen PLUS are used to design the pilot scale operations and optimize the process as a whole.