Background: Eruca sativa Mill. is a good source of glucosinolates (GLS), phenolic compounds and unsaturated fatty acids, being a valuable material for the production of functional-foods or nutraceutical ingredients. Extraction by supercritical CO₂ (SCO₂) can be used and the limitations due to the apolar nature of CO₂ can be overcome using co-solvents. In this paper different cosolvents and conditions were used for SCO₂ extraction and the composition of the obtained extracts was studied by LC-MS.
Results: Water resulted the ideal co-solvent, allowing the extraction of glucosinolates in comparable amounts to the classical procedure with boiling water, as it can be carried out at mild temperatures (45 °C vs. >100 °C). Increasing the pressure improved the GLS extraction. On the other hand polyphenol extraction under the studied conditions was not influenced by pressure and temperature variations. The in vitro antioxidant effect of the obtained extracts was also measured, showing significant activity in the DPPH and FC tests.
Conclusions: The GLS, flavonoids and lipids composition of the obtained extracts was studied, showing the presence of numerous antioxidant constituents useful for nutraceutical applications. The extraction method using SCO₂ and water as co-solvent presents advantages in terms of safety because these solvents are generally recognised as safe. Water as cosolvent at 8% resulted useful for the extraction of both glucosinolates and phenolics in good amount and is environmentally acceptable as well as safe for food production.
Keywords: Eruca sativa; antioxidant activity; glucosinolate; supercritical CO2.