Fractionation of Passion fruit (Passiflora edulis) seed oil using adsorption process with zeolite NA13X

Resumo

The lipid extraction of passion fruit by-products using supercritical CO2 (SFE-CO2) is capable of recovering phytochemicals with high efficiency, using a safe solvent. After extraction, supercritical fractionation by adsorption is an emerging technique that can separate and concentrate bioactive compounds. The objective of this work was to extract the oil from passion fruit by-products by SFE-CO2 and to fractionate it using NA13X zeolites as adsorbent material, varying the separation temperature and mass of zeolites and observing the influence of these process parameters on the final concentration of compounds. Analyses were carried out to characterize the raw material and the enriched extracts in terms of carotenoids. Statistics were applied using ANOVA and Tukey test at 5% significance level. The high molecular weight molecules of the carotenoids were retained in the zeolite pores due to a recovery of fractions with less intense staining.