Extraction of β-Carotene in Red Yeast Cells with Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Technology

The extraction of β-carotene in the red yeast cells by supercritical carbon dioxide(SC-CO2) was studied.The determined conditions by the orthogonal design experiments were as follows:extraction press of 30 MPa,temperature 40 ℃,CO2 volume of 20 kg/h and extraction time of 90 min.The extraction ratio of β-carotene is 0.83 %.Using SC-CO2 technology for extracting β-carotene in the yeast cells is possible,but some factors of influencing the extraction should be further investigated.