LAUSR

Abstract There is a renewed research interest in food industry in natural additives to improve food shelf life and provide preventive or therapeutic effects on chronic ailments. The aim of this study was to optimise the concentration of three bioactives, rosmarinic, oleanolic and ursolic acids from Lavandula luisieri ethanolic extracts using the supercritical antisolvent fractionation technique. In order to evaluate the influence of pressure and CO2 flow rate in the process, response surface methodology was employed. Actives quantification was accomplished using HPLC-Photodiode array. Rosmarinic acid, was completely retained and concentrated in the precipitation vessel, while oleanolic and ursolic acids distributed between both fractions. The supercritical antisolvent fractionation process is a useful and green technology to concentrate bioactive in a fine solid to be applied as natural preservative in food products. The optimum conditions for higher mass recovery and concentration of actives were 130 bar and CO2 feeding flow rate 30 g/min, respectively.