| The main purpose of this study was to investigate the extraction of essential oils from plants by the
supercritical fluid extraction technique. However, other interesting information, regarding the process
optimization, is also discussed. Therefore, logical steps were identified to completely describe the process. These steps were divided into three parts: (1) characterization of essential oils; (2) properties
attributed to the supercritical fluid, including supercritical fluid extraction, parameters affecting the
procedure such as temperature, pressure, particle size, modifier, flow rate, and water, the importance of
fractionation, types of collection methods, the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of essential oils
extracted by supercritical fluid, advantages and drawbacks of this method in comparison with other
extraction techniques; and (3) the use of experimental designs, including screening, optimizing and
modeling, in the process of supercritical fluid extraction of essential oils. |