Extraction of essential oils from Mentha spicata L. (Labiatae) via optimized supercritical carbon dioxide process

- SC-CO2 extraction process is used to extract the essential oil from spearmint leave.
- The effects of different operating conditions are investigated.
- Optimal extraction parameters are obtained based on 2nd order polynomial equation.
- Optimum operating condition is analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
- The yield of optimum condition is obtained 0.4894%.

Spearmint oil known as aromatic volatile compound of plants are widely used in food industries. In the present study, supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) extraction is used to extract the essential oil from spearmint leaves. In this way, a series of extraction experiments are designed to investigate the effect of different operating conditions such as extraction pressure (85-120 bar), extraction temperature (38-50 °C), CO2 flow rate (0.059-0.354 g/min), mean particle size (0.177-2 mm) and dynamic extraction time (20-120 min) on efficiency of the extracted essential oils. In the last step, not only a second order polynomial equation is developed to obtain the optimal SC-CO2 extraction parameters, but also the composition of extracted essential oil at optimum operating condition is analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

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