Malays. Appl. Biol. (2018) 47(2): 39–46
SUPERCRITICAL CARBON DIOXIDE EXTRACTION OF RED
PITAYA (Hylocereus polyrhizus) SEEDS: RESPONSE SURFACE
OPTIMIZATION, FATTY ACID COMPOSITION AND
PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES
ASIAH ABDULLAH1,2, SITI SALWA ABD GANI3,4*, NOR FADZILLAH MOHD MOKHTAR5,
TAUFIQ YAP YUN HIN1, ZAIBUNNISA ABDUL HAIYEE6 and SUHANA MUSTAFA4
1Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
2Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 72500 Kuala Pilah,
Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
3Department of Agriculture Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
4Halal Products Research Institute, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Putra Infoport,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
5Institute for Mathematical Research, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
6Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA,
40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
*E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Accepted 24 April 2018, Published online 25 May 2018
ABSTRACT
A new technology called supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) was performed to obtain oil from red pitaya (Hylocereus polyrhizus) seeds. The extraction process was optimised by response surface methodology (RSM) and the effects of extracting variables namely temperature (35-65ºC) and pressure (1500-5000 psi) were evaluated. A model was developed using central composite design (CCD) for the determination of optimum condition that gave highest oil yield. The highest oil yield was predicted to be about 6.93 wt%, under optimal conditions temperature of 47ºC and pressure of 4750 psi. At optimum conditions obtained, triplicate extractions were performed and found that average experimental extraction yield of oil was 6.88 ± 0.06% and in a good agreement with the predicted value. Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis was carried out to identify the chemical composition of the oil and compared with n-hexane extracted oil. GC-MS analysis revealed negligible differences in fatty acid composition of oil extracted from both methods with linoleic acid as the major component. In the studies of oil quality, the important physicochemical properties of the extracted oil were also analyzed.
Key words: Red pitaya, Hylocereus polyrhizus, supercritical fluid extraction, optimization, response surface methodology