Abstract

Sacha inchi seed oil is a promising substance for applications in food, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical industries because of its valuable components, particularly omega-3. In this research, sacha inchi oil was extracted from the seed kernels using supercritical carbon dioxide (CO<inf>2</inf>) extraction compared with Soxhlet extraction. The influences of extraction time, type of solvents (hexane, ethanol, butanol, and i-propanol), and solvent volume on the oil yield and compositions were investigated in the Soxhlet. In the supercritical CO<inf>2</inf> extraction, the effects of extraction time, temperature, and pressure were evaluated. The physicochemical properties of sacha inchi oils extracted with supercritical CO<inf>2</inf> were characterized. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were also carried out. The results showed the advantage of using supercritical CO<inf>2</inf> extraction to increase the omega-3 content in the extracted oil within a shorter extraction time. The omega-3 content of 46.08% was obtained from the supercritical CO<inf>2</inf> extraction at 400 bar and 60 °C. Supercritical CO<inf>2</inf> extraction is a safe and environmentally friendly method that yields a toxic-free oil.