The Extraction of β-Carotene from Red Yeast Cells by Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Technique

The extraction of β-carotene from red yeast cells by supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) was studied. The determined conditions from the orthogonal designed experiments were as follows: extraction pressure of 30 MPa, temperature at 40 °C, CO2 volume of 20 Kg/h and extraction time for 90 min. Using SC-CO2 technique to extract β-carotene from the yeast cells is possible, but some factors that affect the extraction result should be further investigated.