Supercritical CO2 extraction of bioactives from P. halepensis petals: Process modeling, mass transfer, and bioactivity characterization

The extraction of bioactive compounds from P. halepensis petals was carried out using supercritical carbon dioxide (Sc-CO₂) under varying operational conditions, including extraction time, pressure (300–500 bar), co-solvent type (water or ethanol), and particle size (120–1400 µm), and compared to conventional techniques such as Soxhlet extraction and maceration. The results showed that Sc-CO₂ extraction at 300–500 bar achieves ∼80 % recovery of bioactive compounds within the first 30 min. Tan, Liang and Liou model successfully fitted the extraction kinetics. Furthermore, all extracts demonstrated moderate to high anticancer activity against LS174t and HCT116 cell lines compared to tamoxifen (a well-known anticancer standard). Extracts obtained by Sc-CO₂ with water as a co-solvent exhibited significant antioxidant activity against DPPH free radical; however, their antioxidant activities were notably lower than those obtained through conventional extraction methods. Finally, 38 molecules were identified by HPLC-DAD and 24 by GC-MS. The originality and novelty of this study are a) First-time application of Sc-CO₂ to extract bioactive compounds from P. halepensis petals; b) Identification of new chemical compounds (seven detected for the first time in this species) as a novel contribution.