- Raw material preparation
- Pick moringa leaves or seeds and wash and dry them to remove impurities.
- The moringa leaves were baked at 80℃ until the moisture content was 6%, then ground into powder by magnetic stirrer and sifted through 80 mesh to obtain moringa leaf powder, dry and store at low temperature for use.
- Moringa seeds need to be shelled, take out moringa seeds kernel, crush into powder.
- Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction
- Moringa leaf powder or moringa seed kernel powder is loaded into the extraction tank of the supercritical carbon dioxide extraction unit.
- According to the optimized process parameters, the supercritical carbon dioxide temperature, pressure and other conditions are set to start the extraction device.
- The supercritical carbon dioxide fluid dissolves the active ingredients such as phenolic compounds in moringa oleifolia under high pressure and is then separated by a separator.
- In the separator, the pressure or temperature is adjusted so that the carbon dioxide and the extract quickly become two phases (gas-liquid separation) and are immediately separated.
- Collection and purification
- Collect the extract from the separator, the phenolic compounds in the moringa tree.
- If necessary, the extract can be further purified, such as co-solvent extraction using ethanol as a co-solvent.
- Operating parameter(Reference)
- Temperature: 35-80 ° C, the lower temperature helps to protect the heat-sensitive components.
- Pressure: 15-25 MPa, the higher the pressure, the stronger the dissolution capacity of carbon dioxide.
- CO2 flow rate: According to the specific equipment and raw material amount, generally 20kg/h.
- Extraction time: usually 1-3 hours, the specific time according to the extraction efficiency and equipment conditions.
- Separation temperature: generally about 40℃.