4. Conclusions
In summary, the results here reported show that the dehydration
method is a key factor in enhancing vitamin E and carotenoid
extraction from pumpkin by SC-CO2 technology. In our experimental
conditions, oven-drying resulted the method of choice, due to:
(1) a much cheaper cost with respect to freeze-drying; (2) a better
quality of the dehydrated material in terms of friability that make
it suitable for grinding and milling into a fine powder; (3) a 12.0-
and 8.5-fold increase in vitamin E and total carotenoid SC-CO2
extraction yields, respectively, with respect to freeze-drying. Finally,
mixing the oven-dried flesh with milled pumpkin seeds (1:1, w/
w) further increased carotenoid yield of 1.6-fold. In addition, the
oven-drying procedure led to an enrichment of the extract in tocopherols,
tocotrienols and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA).
The results also confirmed that pumpkin SC-CO2 extracts represent
a rich source of high quality carotenoids and other bioactive
compounds useful as ingredients for functional food or cosmeceutical
preparations, and encourage the scaling up of the extraction
process at industrial level.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements
The research has been supported by MIUR Project ‘‘Conoscenze
Integrate per la Sostenibilità e l’Innovazione del made in Italy Agroalimentare’’
(CISIA). We are grateful to Christina O’Rourke for
improving the English in the manuscript.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be
found, in the online version, at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.foodchem.2013.10.051.
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