Hansen’s method describe a-pinene as a good alternative
for aroma extraction, but experimentally the flavour
profile is very different from that of the hexane extract.
This difference can be explained by the difficulty to
evaporate the solvent. Coupling Hansen’s method to
experimental solubility profiles, MeTHF appeared as the
alternative solvent most likely to replace hexane. The 2-D
graph of dp versus dh (Fig. 4) shows the different
blackcurrant aroma and the different alternative solvent
according to Hansen’s parameters. Circles materialize
experimental and prediction data for n-hexane and
MeTHF. This graph allows visualizing the miscibility of
aromas and alternative solvents from both experimental
and theoretical points of view. The results with MeTHF
were in good consistency with predictive HSP results. In
other words, MeTHF has been chosen for two reasons: the
first one is that there is a good correlation between theory
and practice, and the second one is that the aromatic extract
is comparable to the extract using hexane. Furthermore,
MeTHF is an agrosolvent produced from by-products of
agriculture (waste of corn cobs) and is not a carcinogenic,
mutagenic, and reprotoxic (CMR) compound