Phase and kinetic equilibrium study using Supercritical CO2 from the extraction of essential oils from plant matrices with anxiolytic potentials from the Paranapanema region

Abstract

It is estimated that 20% of the adult world population suffers from anxiety. This disease is manifested by sensations of psychic malaise, translated by a variety of somatic disorders related to autonomic hyperactivity. The pharmaceutical industry has a great therapeutic arsenal for anxiety, nevertheless, generating numerous adverse effects on its users. In this way, the search for safer and more effective alternatives finds in medicinal plants a promising source. Extracts obtained from Sucupira-Preta (Bowdichia virgilioides), Burrito (Aloysia polystachya) and Capuchinhas (Tropaeolum majus) are indicated in the literature as potential matrices of compounds with anxiolytic properties. Obtaining compounds with therapeutic properties requires a great deal of separation techniques, especially purification, since the extracted compound is required to be free of solvent residues and possess a high degree of purity. The technique of extraction with pressurized fluids to obtain the extracts from the plant matrices presents the possibility of substitution of organic solvents by non-toxic gases, such as carbon dioxide, which results in extraction with less environmental impact and obtaining a product free of residual solvents. In this sense, this research proposal aims to obtain extracts of plant matrices. For this, a study of the behavior of the phase equilibrium at high pressures, from the visual synthetic method, will be carried out in order to determine the behavior of the system {CO2 + essential extract} and to determine the favorable conditions for the manipulation of this compound when using or carbon dioxide. The phase transition data will be mathematically correlated from thermodynamic state (EoS) equations. An evaluation of the variables of the supercritical extraction process (temperature, pressure and extraction flow) of the plant matrices will be performed to verify the conditions that maximize the amount of extracts (lipid fraction) obtained. The extracts will be evaluated according to the chromatographic analysis, according to the identification and/or quantification of secondary metabolites. The kinetics of the extractions will be theoretically correlated from the mathematical models of extraction indicated in the specialized literature. (AU)