Food grade ethanol
solvent may be substituted for THF as the rinsing solvent because
of its non-toxic effect, which is ideal for food products (Kassama
et al., 2008). Moreover, ethanol as modifier in supercritical CO2
extraction could improve the solubility of carotenoids that resulted
in 93% recovery of lycopene (Huang et al., 2008). In comparison
with previous work, extraction with tomato seed without rinsing
had a higher efficiency than that of Topal et al. (2006), indicating
that even without the use of THF as a rinsing method, yield of
carotenoid can be improved by the addition of tomato seed oil in
the supercritical CO2 extraction. In addition, seed oil may also be
used to replace the toxic organic solvent used to remove carotenoids
remaining in the extraction system.