Supercritical fluid extraction of grape seed oil and subsequent separation of free fatty acids by high-speed counter-current chromatography

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of grape seed oil was performed to study the effect of various parameters such as pressure, temperature and the particle size of the sample on the yield and composition of oil using an analytical-scale SFE system. Then the extraction was scaled up by 125 times using a preparative SFE system under the optimized conditions of high pressure (30–40 MPa) and low temperature (35–40 °C) with medium particle size (20–40 mesh). The maximum yield of the oil can reach 6.2% with pure supercritical CO2 and 4.0% more oil can be obtained by adding 10% of ethanol as modifier. The unsaturated fatty acids (UFSs) make up about 70% in the oil on the basis of free fatty acids. The grape seed oil was then subjected to separation and purification for free fatty acids after saponification by high-speed counter-current chromatography coupled with evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD). The separation of 1.0 g of oil can yield about 430 mg pure linoleic acid at 99% purity. The fatty acids were analyzed by HPLC–ELSD.