Enfleurage: craftsmanship, used by the perfume industry to obtain essential oils and essences from flowers.
Extraction with supercritical fluids: generally, to extract low-polar compounds from drugs, supercritical carbon dioxide is used, to which other solvents are sometimes added to improve the extraction capacity of the system. The supercritical state corresponds to an intermediate stage between that gaseous and liquid, in which the solvating and permeability capacities of the solvent are maximum.
This extraction method is extremely selective, since the supercritical carbon dioxide is introduced into the closed system at a temperature and pressure such as to allow the evaporation of the single active principle, therefore already pure and immediately usable. An "exception to the rule is" the use of a cosolvent; in this case, in order to obtain the pure active principle, it must in any case be removed at the end of the extraction.
Based on the extraction method used, there are three types of extract:
A) Fluid: solvent in which the active ingredients are dissolved; it does not lend itself easily to industrial processes and is susceptible to bacterial attacks.
B) Springs: fluid extract from which a large quantity of solvent has been removed, with a solid or semi-solid consistency (an example is the licorice tablet); more manipulable than the fluid extract, it is hardly contaminated.
C) Dry: the extraction solvent has been completely removed, therefore we have pure active ingredients.
The extraction methods must be associated from time to time with the individual types of drugs and active ingredients that must be isolated.
Other articles on "Extraction with supercritical fluids"
- Distillation
- Pharmacognosy
- Liquid-liquid extraction from alkaloid drugs