2.2. Soxhlet extraction (SE) process
10 g of ground pumpkin seeds (80-mesh) were extracted with
100 mL of n-hexane in a Soxhlet extractor at 90 C for 6 h, as described
in the Soxhlet standard extraction method (AOAC, 1997).
The n-hexane was removed at 50 C under reduced pressure using
a rotary evaporator and the oil was dried at 105 C to a constant
mass under nitrogen in a drying oven. This technique produced
44.61 ± 0.29 g of oil per 100 g of seeds, which was set as 100% oil
recovery for comparison. The recovered oil was stored at 4 C until
use.