EFFECTS OF SOME EXPERIMENTAL PARAMETERS ON YIELD AND COMPOSITION OF SUPERCRITICAL CARBON DIOXIDE EXTRACTS OF CINNAMON BARK

ABSTRACT Supercritical CO 2 extraction of the volatile oil from cinnamon bark was carried out under different conditions of temperature (30, 50 and 70C), pressure (16, 20 and 24 MPa) and dynamic extraction time (20, 40, 60 and 80 min), in order to evaluate their influence on the global yield and the composition of the volatile oil using a pilot‐scale supercritical fluid extraction (SFE ) system. The maximum yield of cinnamon SFE sample can reach 8% at 70C, 24 MPa and for a 40‐min dynamic extraction time. The chemical composition of each SFE sample was analyzed by gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC‐MS). Thirty compounds consisting of over 98% of the total SFE of the volatile oil were identified by GC‐MS. The major components were cinnamonaldehyde (70–98%), α ‐muurolene (1–6%), eugenol (2–8%), α ‐caryophyllen (1–3%) and γ ‐muurolene (1–3%). PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The results obtained in this work can be used to develop the supercritical fluid extraction from cinnamon bark. Cinnamon bark has many applications in food additives, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. According to these results, the effects of various parameters on the global yield of extract and composition of volatile oil are obtained. The best supercritical extractions were found to be 24 MPa, 70C and for 40 min of dynamic extraction time.