Pressurized liquid extraction of anthocyanins and biflavonoids from Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi: A multivariate optimization

Response surface methodology was employed to investigate the effects of pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) parameters on the recovery of phenolic compounds (anthocyanins, biflavonoids) from Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi) fruits. The effects of temperature, static time, and ethanol as well as acid concentration on the polyphenol yield were described well by quadratic models (p < 0.0001). A significant influence of the ethanol concentration (p < 0.0001) and several interactions (p < 0.05) were identified. Identification of the biflavonoid I3′,II8-binaringenin in drupes of S. terebinthifolius was achieved by UHPLC-MS2. Interestingly, at high extraction temperatures (>75 °C), an artifact occurred and was tentatively identified as a diastereomer of I3′,II8-binaringenin. Multivariate optimization led to high yields of phenolic compounds from the exocarp/drupes at 100/75 °C, 10/10 min, 54.5/54.2% ethanol, and 5/0.03% acetic acid. This study demonstrates that PLE is well suited for the extraction of phenolic compounds from S. terebinthifolius and can efficiently be optimized by response surface methodology.