Extração em condições supercríticas de compostos a partir de resíduos de cacau

Abstract

Given the constant increase in food production, the production of agro-industrial products stands out, such as cocoa found in chocolates consumed extensively at both the Brazilian and global levels. However, in contrast to the high production of this fruit and its use in industrial processes, there is the generation of waste—the cocoa husk—since the compounds of interest are primarily found in its interior. Nevertheless, this discarded husk contains bioactive substances with broad applications, such as in the food and pharmaceutical industries, and can be treated to extract a refined product. One alternative is the use of supercritical extraction employing carbon dioxide as a solvent, owing to its advantages of low cost, non-flammability, and easy product separation. Therefore, aided by a supercritical extraction laboratory unit operating at a pressure of 200 bars, temperatures of 40ºC and 60ºC, and a flow rate of 3mL/min, the characterized cocoa husk with defined particle sizes was subjected to a 120 minutes process, resulting in yields of 2.265% and 2.195% for the respective temperatures. An analysis, by gas chromatography with the aid of a mass spectrometer, of the extracted oil demonstrated the presence of fatty acids, ethers, esters, alcohols, and, notably, due to industrial applications, concentrations of 5.44% for caffeine and 2.89% for theobromine. Finally, it was concluded that, under the isobaric conditions operated, temperature did not significantly influence the yield, as the averages were statistically equal. The variable also did not generally impact the analysis of the refined composition, except for the DEHP molecule, which was not identified at the higher temperature.