Solvent extraction and purification of rosmarinic acid from supercritical fluid extraction fractionation waste: Economic evaluation and scale-up

Industry is increasingly interested in natural food preservatives, antimicrobial, and antioxidants due to their beneficial effects. The use of plant waste also presented itself to be a great opportunity in recovered bioactive compounds remaining in the residue. In this work, bioactive compounds were obtained from Rosmarinus officinalis in two different ways: firstly the supercritical fractionated rosemary extract with different composition was obtained from the plant material, and secondly a potent antioxidant-rosmarinic acid (RA) – was successfully extracted from the plant waste. A purification process scale-up of RA was proposed using GRAS solvent, and an economic evaluation was made for the overall process. A complete process to obtain bioactive compounds, antimicrobial (supercritical fluid extraction and fractionation extraction) and antioxidant (solvent extraction) was developed.