Extraction of oil residues from natural products using green solvents: A review

What is it about?

This paper provides an overview of the use of green solvents for oil extraction from natural product using soxhlet extraction and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) methods. In terms of qualitative and quantitative determinations on the extracted oils, the use of green solvents was comparable with n-hexane. For soxhlet extraction method, the integration of microwave application into the soxhlet at their optimum conditions has shown improvement in oil yield, oil quality, solvent consumption and extraction time. SFE using CO2 also revealed promising results as soxhlet extraction but apparently it involved high operating cost and difficult to control. Despite of that, all the studies successfully demonstrated the suitability of green solvent as an alternative to petroleum driven solvents for extraction of oils from natural products.

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Why is it important?

Most solvents used in oil extraction method are not environmentally friendly and sometime hazardous to human health and well being. One of the solvents widely used in soxhlet extraction method is n-hexane which is known to cause infertility among women when exposed to this chemical for longer periods. Therefore, this paper reviews some alternative methods using green materials such as from plant and natural product to replace n-hexane so as to avoid detrimental effects caused by this solvent.

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