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. 2011;12(11):7708-19.
doi: 10.3390/ijms12117708. Epub 2011 Nov 8.

Fatty acid composition and antioxidant activity of tea (Camellia sinensis L.) seed oil extracted by optimized supercritical carbon dioxide

Yuefei Wang  1 , Da Sun, Hao Chen, Lisheng Qian, Ping Xu
Affiliations

Fatty acid composition and antioxidant activity of tea (Camellia sinensis L.) seed oil extracted by optimized supercritical carbon dioxide

Yuefei Wang et al. Int J Mol Sci. 2011.

Abstract

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-CO(2)) 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-CO(2) 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-CO(2) contained approximately 80% unsaturated fatty acids and showed a much stronger scavenging ability on the DPPH radical than that extracted by Soxhlet. SC-CO(2) is a promising alternative for efficient extraction of edible oil from tea seed. Moreover, tea seed oil extracted by SC-CO(2) is highly edible and has good antioxidant activity, and therefore may play a potential role as a health-promoting food resource in human diets.

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

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Response surfaces plots of SC-CO2 extraction of tea seed oil. Yield of oil is presented as a function of: (a) time and temperature (extraction pressure set at 30 MPa); (b) pressure and temperature (extraction time set to 70 min); and (c) pressure and time (extraction temperature set to 40 °C).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Chromatograms of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) of tea seed oils. (a) FAMEs of the oil extracted by SC-CO2; (b) FAMEs of the oil extracted by Soxhlet. Peaks are defined as follows: 1: heptylic acid; 2: palmitic acid; 3: stearic acid; 4: oleic acid; 5: linoleic acid; and 6: gondoic acid.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Chromatograms of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) of tea seed oils. (a) FAMEs of the oil extracted by SC-CO2; (b) FAMEs of the oil extracted by Soxhlet. Peaks are defined as follows: 1: heptylic acid; 2: palmitic acid; 3: stearic acid; 4: oleic acid; 5: linoleic acid; and 6: gondoic acid.
Figure 3
Figure 3
DPPH free radical scavenging activity of tea seed oils extracted by SC-CO2 and Soxhlet.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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