Review on Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction of Medicinal Natural Products

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) has gained wide acceptance in recent years as an alternative to conventional solvent extraction for the isolation of bioactive from natural resources. Due to increasingly stringent environmental regulations, SFE is adopted as a green technology in the separation of organic compounds in many analytical and industrial processes. This review describes major advances in the extraction of natural products of medicinal and agricultural importance using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2). SC-CO2 extraction has been implemented successfully in the isolation of bioactive compounds from food by-products, plants and marine products possessing diverse biological properties. With increasing public interest in natural medicines and bio-pesticides, the application of SC-CO 2 continues to grow radically and SC-CO2 extraction emerges as an efficient and fast alternative technique for isolating bioactive compounds from natural resources as compared to conventional extraction processes.