Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction, as a relatively new separation
technique, can be used as a very efficient process in the production of
essential oils and oleoresins from many of plant materials. The extracts from
these materials are a good basis for the new pharmaceutical products and
ingredients in the functional foods. This paper deals with supercritical
carbon dioxide extraction of selected oil seeds which are of little interest
in classical extraction in the food industry. In this article the process
parameters in the supercritical carbon dioxide extraction, such as pressure,
temperature, solvent flow rate, diameter of gound materials, and moisture of
oil seed were presented for the following seeds: almond fruits, borage seed,
corn germ, grape seed, evening primrose, hazelnut, linseed, pumpkin seed,
walnut, and wheat germ. The values of investigated parameters in
supercritical extraction were: pressure from 100 to 600 bar, temperature from
10 to 70oC, diameter of grinding material from 0.16 to 2.0 mm, solvent flow
used from 0.06 to 30.0 kg/h, amount of oil in the feed from 10.0 to 74.0%,
and moisture of oil seed from 1.1 to 7.5%. The yield and quality of the
extracts of all the oil seeds as well as the possibility of their application
in the pharmaceutical and food, industries were analyzed.