Desorption of artemisinin extracts of CIM-Arogya by supercritical carbon dioxide

•Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (SFCO2) Artemisinin extraction from CIM-Arogya.•Hexane Soxhlet Artemisinin extraction from CIM-Arogya.•Crude Soxhlet Artemisinin extracts, adsorbed on silica gel, treated with SFCO2.•In desorption runs extracts collected and analiysed at different intervals of time.•Desorption trials correlated with different models.

Artemisinin is a drug for chloroquine resistant malaria and cerebral malaria treatments. In the recent past, there was an acute shortage of this drug and hence World Health Organization made a strategy to fulfil the Artemisinin demand.In this study, artemisinin was extracted by supercritical Carbon Dioxide (SFCO2) from CIM-Arogya, a variety of Artemisia annua, in temperature and pressure ranges of 313.1-333.1 K and 15-25 MPa. Artemisinin global yield isotherms were determined obtaining a maximum yield of 3.65 wt%. Artemisinin extracts were also obtained by hexane Soxhlet extraction: then, the crude extracts were purified using SFCO2, after adsorption on silica gel. Different desorption runs were performed with a 6 ml/min CO2 flow rate, in temperature and pressure ranges of 313.1-333.1 K and 15-25 MPa. At different time intervals, extracts were collected and analysed: their yields varied from 2.75% to 4.34% function of the experimental conditions. Desorption trials were also correlated with different models.

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