Modifier-Enhanced Supercritical CO₂ Extraction with GRAS Solvents of Coumarin from Cumaru Seeds (Dipteryx Odorata)

Abstract

Cumaru seeds (Dipteryx odorata) are commercialized as flavoring in cigarettes, chocolate, perfumes, cosmetics and naturopathy. Dipteryx odorata is the specie that has the highest content of the coumarin compound in the Dipteryx family. Furthermore, coumarin has a pharmacological potential against prostate cancer, prevention of metastasis, prevention and retardation of malignant cancer. Coumarin compounds are obtained by organic solvent conventional methods from cumaru seeds. However, the solvent organic extraction method has some inconvenient such as low selectivity, residual traces of organic solvent in extract and separation process demands high-energy expenditure. Supercritical extraction method has been widely used to obtain natural extracts with highly purity, cause it does not contain organic solvents, and so it is suitable for various pharmaceutical and food applications. In this work, coumarin was obtained from cumaru seeds by supercritical extraction using different experimental conditions of temperature, pressure, type and percentage of modifier. Soxhlet extraction with hexane and ethanol was used as a reference method. The content of coumarin on the extracts obtained by Soxhlet technical were 0.5 wt% for ethanol and 1.43 wt% for hexane, respectively. Modifier-enhanced supercritical CO2 extraction of the coumarin showed a higher selectivity than extraction using Soxhlet technical. Particularly, to the extraction with 3 wt% ethanol as modifier, 353 K and 18 MPa, coumarin content was 20.9 wt% on extract. Termogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed no degradation of the coumarin in the temperatures of extractions carried out. Finally, it was possible to obtain coumarin with high purity directly from the cumaru seeds using the technical of the modifier- enhanced supercritical CO2 extraction with GRAS solvents.