Techno-economic evaluation of obtaining Brazilian ginseng extracts in potential production scenarios

- The economic evaluation of Brazilian ginseng processing was conducted.
- The intensified extraction shown to be useful to obtain products from Brazilian ginseng.
- The price of the extract affects greatly the viability of the process.
- The intensified extraction presented the higher economic feasibility.

Brazilian ginseng extracts are considered as functional ingredients to promote health benefits due to its bioactive properties. The present study aims at studying a two-step intensified extraction process that operates at ambient pressure in order to recover Brazilian ginseng roots bioactive compounds. The intensified process consists in a sequential extraction system using ethanol followed by water, envisioning the improvement of the overall extraction yield of the process to make it feasible. A technical-economic analysis of the proposed process was assessed through the use of computational simulation tools. The intensified process was compared to a simple extraction process using only ethanol or water as extracting solvents. The results showed that the lowest payback time for the investment is achieved not by minimizing process cost but at maximizing beta-ecdysone production. Economic performance indicators of income statement and profitability ratios showed that, even with higher investment cost, the intensified process presented higher economic attractiveness than the single step extraction processes using ethanol or water.