Study of kinetics of the d-pinitol extraction from carob pods using supercritical CO2

• Influence study of operating conditions on the SFE of d-pinitol from carob pods.
• It has been determined the best CO2 flow rate to optimize d-pinitol yield.
• The extraction time needed to a successfully d-pinitol recovery has been obtained.
• Naik and Barton models have been tested to fit the experimental extraction curves.

There is a growing interest in the use of d-pinitol (d-3-O-methyl-chiro-inositol) as a food supplement, thus the use of green and efficient process, such as the supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), to isolate d-pinitol from vegetable raw materials is also an interesting area of research and development. The objective of this work was to study the influence of operating conditions on the SFE of d-pinitol from carob pods. The crucial parameters in SFE, like temperature, pressure, CO2 flow rate and duration of the process, have been studied. Finally, Naik and Barton models have successfully tested in order to fit the experimental extraction curves.

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