Supercritical fluid extraction of oil from muskmelon (Cucumis melo) seeds

The objective of this present study was to develop a suitable supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) method for extraction of oil from muskmelon seed (Cucumis melo). A Box-Behnken response surface design was applied to investigate and optimize the process variables (pressure, temperature, CO2 flow rate and time) on the yield of muskmelon seed oil. A second-order polynomial equation was developed to express the oil yield as a function of independent variables. The maximum oil yield (48.11%) was procured when SFE was carried out at 44 MPa of pressure, 49 °C of temperature, 0.64 g/min of CO2 flow rate and 81 min of extraction time. The total yield and fatty acids composition of muskmelon seed oil extracted by SFE was similar to that of oil extracted by Soxhlet extraction. Physicochemical properties of the oil at optimal SFE condition showed that the extracted oil could be adopted as food oil supplement. The experimental results indicated that SFE technique reduced the solvent consumption and extraction time with no adverse effect on the extraction yield and fatty acid composition of the oil.