Fatty Acid Composition and Antioxidant Activity of Tea (Camellia sinensis L.) Seed Oil Extracted by Optimized Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Yuefei Wang¹  Da Sun¹  Hao Chen¹  Lisheng Qian¹ 

[1] Department of Tea Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China;

关键词: tea;    seed oil;    supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂);    response surface methodology (RSM);    antioxidant activity;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms12117708

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Seeds are another product in addition to leaves (raw materials for teas) of tea (Camellia sinensis L.) plant. The great increase of tea consumption in recent years raises the challenge of finding commercial applications for tea seeds. In the present study, supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂) extraction edible oil from tea seed was carried out, response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize processing parameters including time (20–90 min), temperature (35–45 °C) and pressure (50–90 MPa). The fatty acid composition and antioxidant activity of the extracted oil was also investigated. The highest yield of oil (29.2 ± 0.6%) was obtained under optimal SC-CO₂ extraction conditions (45 °C, 89.7 min and 32 MPa, respectively), which was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than that (25.3 ± 1.0%) given by Soxhlet extraction. Meanwhile, tea seed oil extracted by SC-CO₂ contained approximately 80% unsaturated fatty acids and showed a much stronger scavenging ability on the DPPH radical than that extracted by Soxhlet. SC-CO₂ is a promising alternative for efficient extraction of edible oil from tea seed. Moreover, tea seed oil extracted by SC-CO₂ is highly edible and has good antioxidant activity, and therefore may play a potential role as a health-promoting food resource in human diets.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2011 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.