Study On Extraction Process Of Sesamin With Supercritical CO₂ From Sesame Seeds

Sesamin, which is a major lignin in sesame seeds and sesame seed oil, has many biological activities, such as cholesterol-lowering, antidote, liver –protecting. As a natural substance, the sesame is gradually taken care and widely applied the fields of health care products, food and medicine. Therefore the research of sesame has an important economic value.In this paper, the supercritical extraction and fractionation technologies were used to separate and concentrate the sesamin from sesame seeds. The operating parameters were also studied.This paper mainly includes the following contents:1. The extraction experiments of sesamin were carried by using the soxhlet extraction and the supercritical extraction. The results showed that, using the supercritical extraction, the content of sesamin was high.2. For the supercritical extraction, we studied the effect of the operating parameters, such as extraction temperature, extraction pressure and accumulating flow of CO₂, on the extractive content and yield. By using response surface method combined with Box-Behnken experimental design, we obtained the optimal operating conditions——extraction temperature of 49 ?, extraction pressure of 40 MPa, the CO₂ accumulating flow of 39kg/h. Under the optimal conditions, the yield of sesame oil and sesamin were 52.75% and 77.98%,respectively.3. For the supercritical fractionation, the effect of the operating parameters, such as operating temperature, pressure, feed position, ratio of solid to liquid, and CO₂ accumulating flow, on the content and yield of sesamin was also studied. The optimal fractionation conditions were obtained, when the operating temperature and pressure were 30?and 24 MPa,input quantity was 300 g, feed position was the fourth column feed, ratio of solid to liquid1:22, and CO₂ accumulating flow was 25 kg. Under the optimal conditions, the purity and yield of sesamin were 1.1% and 82.64% in batch operation, while the purity and yield of sesamin were 3.66% and 85% in continuous operation.