Health-Promoting Properties of Borage Seed Oil Fractionated by Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction

Borage (Borago officinalis L.) seed oil is an important source of γ–linolenic acid, which is normally used as a treatment against different pathologies. Since the fractionation of this interesting seed oil has many environmental, economic and biological benefits, two borage fractionation techniques after extraction with CO2 under supercritical conditions have been studied: precipitation in two cyclone separators and countercurrent extraction column. Both techniques have successfully collected free fatty acids in one fraction: (i) two separators set up in series obtained the highest concentration of free fatty acids in separator 2 at 90 bar/40 °C; (ii) when countercurrent extraction column was used, the acidity index of the raffinate stream was independent from the operating conditions (2.6 ± 0.5%). Furthermore, the composition of the fatty acids, as well as their antioxidant and cytotoxic activities, were determined. The profile of the fatty acids obtained by either of these two methods remained unaltered, so that the crude oil exhibited improved antioxidant and cytotoxic properties. All the extracts obtained in the two cyclone separators at the same pressure/temperature conditions displayed high tumouricidal activity against HL 60 promyelocytic leukaemia cells, even if the extracts at 50% concentration from separator 2 presented a lower inhibitory activity (IC50). The extracts from separator 2 at 90 bar/40 °C exhibited the highest anti-proliferative activity at low doses (IC50 of 0.3 μL/mL for the trypan blue exclusion test). To reach the lethal dose—IC50—with the product obtained through countercurrent column fractionation, a concentration of 2 μL/mL of crude borage oil raffinate was required.

Separation and purification of triglyceride from nyamplung (Calophyllum inophyllum) seed oil as biodiesel feedstock by using continuous countercurrent extraction

Calophyllum inophyllum or commonly called nyamplung in Indonesia has the potential to be used as a biodiesel feedstock due to its high oil content. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of feed flowrate and solvent to oil mass ratio on triglycerides (TAG) and free fatty acid (FFA) contents in non-polar lipid fraction (NPLF) of C. inophyllum seed oil by using continuous counter-current extraction. The contents of TAG and FFA in NPLF of C. inophyllum seed oil each sample points in continuous countercurrent extraction equipment. It was expected that the TAG became purer and suitable for biodiesel purpose. Various factors applied in this study were the effect of solvent to oil mass ratio and the effect of n-hexane + oil to methanol feed flowrate in liter per hour. Crude C. inophyllum seed oil contained 63.91% TAG, 15.76% FFA, 12.25% monoglycerides (MAG), dan 4.66% diglycerides (DAG). Separation and purification of TAG were carried out by using a packed column with the principle of countercurrent flow using n-hexane and methanol technical grade as solvents. The product of extraction analyzed TAG content qualitatively by using TLC and quantitatively using HT-GC, while NPLF from each sample points were analyzed using HT-GC. The optimum results were obtained by using a solvent to oil mass ratio of 6 (w:w) and (n-hexane + oil) to methanol feed flowrate of 6:15 (L/h:L/h) with 92.85% content of TAG, 2.19% content of FFA and 74.79% yield of NPLF.