Study of the Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction conditions of PUFA from Perilla seeds

The limited amount of fish oils available has led to extensive search for alternative sources of oils rich in long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). Evidence from a large number of epidemiological studies, clinical studies and intervention trials have established the protective effect of omega 3 PUFA against several pathologies such as cardiopathies, diabetes and cancer. The fish oil remains the principal source of omega 3 even if a variety of alternative PUFA sources, such as bacteria, fungi, plants and microalgae are currently being explored for commercial production. The present study reports the extraction of perilla frutescens var frutescens seeds oil by means of supercritical carbon dioxide technique. Composition of the obtained extracts was analyzed by different techniques allowing a careful comparison with oil obtained from mechanical press extraction. Moreover, this plant of Asian origin, has been cultivated and bred in Italy.