Carotenoids Particle Formation by Supercritical Fluid Technologies

Based on the solubility in supercritical CO2, two strategies in which CO2 plays different roles are used to make quercetine and astaxanthin particles by supercritical fluid technologies. The experimental results showed that micronized quercetine particles with mean particle size of 1.0-1.5 μm can be made via solution enhanced dispersion by supercritical fluids (SEDS) process, in which CO2 worked as turbulent anti-solvent; while for astaxanthin, micronized particles with mean particle size of 0.3-0.8 μm were also made successfully by rapid expansion supercritical solution (RESS) process.