Sustainable extraction and encapsulation of pink pepper oil

Pink pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius R.) is a native tree from Brazilian coast and presents important biological activities, such as antitumor, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, among others. The objective of this work was to explore the use of the supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) for pink pepper fruits, a sustainable method for a novelty material, comparing with different techniques in terms of process yield, total phenolic content (TPC), and antioxidant activity of the recovered extracts. The SFE was performed at pressures from 150 to 300 bar and temperatures of 40, 50 and 60 °C, with CO2 as solvent. Pink pepper extracts were also obtained by Soxhlet (SOX) and by Ultrasound accelerated extraction (UE) using hexane, ethanol (EtOH), and ethyl acetate (EtOAc) as solvents. The extracts were evaluated as antioxidant potential (ABTS and DPPH methods), total phenolic content (TPC) and chemical profile (GC-MS). The encapsulation process was evaluated using the extract obtained at 300 bar and 60 °C, through the emulsification and solvent extraction technique, using PLA as encapsulating agent. The best extraction yields were obtained by SOX-EtOH and UE-EtOH (44 ± 1% and 21 ± 2%, respectively), followed by SFE at 300 bar and 60 °C (5.9 ± 0.3%). Pink pepper extracts obtained by SOX-EtOH and SFE 300 bar/60 °C presented the best DPPH value. The major compounds identified in the pink pepper extracts were germacrene D, sabinene, β and α-phellandrene. The microencapsulation by the emulsification and solvent extraction technique led the formation of micrometer-sized particles with spherical shape and morphology of the microspheres. The encapsulation efficiency of pink pepper extract in polylactic acid (PLA) ranged from 34.3% to 74.1%. The results from this work suggest the importance of this raw material as a potential for generating high value products with therapeutic applications.