This work aims to study supercritical anti-solvent micronization of marigold derived purified lutein that
was dissolved in the mixture of hexane and ethyl acetate (70:30 v/v),the solvent used as the mobile phase
for chromatographic purification. The results show significant effect of pressure on the morphology of
micronized lutein particles. The increase in lutein initial concentration from 1.5 mg/ml to 3.2 mg/ml
and the increase in SC-CO2 flow rate from 15 ml/min to 25 ml/min show no significant effects on the
morphology of lutein particles. However, the reduction of mean particle size from about 2 m to 0.8 m
was observed by increasing SC-CO2 flow rate. The X-ray diffraction patterns of the micronized lutein
particles show apparent amorphous nature, while the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results
show that no chemical structural changes occurred. Moreover, the solubility of the micronized lutein
particles in aqueous solution was found to increase significantly from being almost insoluble to having
approximately 20% solubility