Cold-pressed yuzu oil fractionation using countercurrent supercritical CO2 extraction column

Supercritical CO2 fractionation of cold-pressed yuzu oil was carried out in semi-continuous extraction column. The effect of temperature and pressure on the extraction yield, extract fractions composition and recovery factor of aroma components was investigated. Temperature gradient along the column was also applied to achieve the effective separation. At isobaric condition, temperature had no significant effect on the extraction yield. On the other hand, increasing temperature gradient affected to the extraction yield. Sesquiterpene from yuzu oil has been successfully separated in this work. The highest enrichment of sesquiterpene in the residual oil could be obtained at 8.8 MPa with temperature gradient of 40–100 °C. However, the higher yield of extract was found at 20 MPa and 40 °C. In addition, 94% of δ-elemene could be recovered from yuzu oil at 8.8 MPa and 60 °C. This result showed that yuzu oil is potential source of δ-elemene.