Process for the supercritical extraction and fractionation of spices.

摘要

A process for extracting spice to obtain oleoresin and fractionating the oleoresin into fixed and essential oil components is described. The extraction is performed on the ground spice using supercritical fluid carbon dioxide under a pressure of from about 400 bar to about 600 bar and at a temperature of from about 80 DEG C to about 120 DEG C. A cascading continuous extraction method is preferred. Oleoresin fractions are precipitated from the supercritical fluid at reduced pressures in the ranges 280-380 bar and 100-200 bar at 80-100 DEG C, while a last fraction is obtained from the non-critical fluid at a pressure of 30-50 bar and a temperature of 0-30 DEG C.