The essential basil (Ocimum basilicum) oil has been valued in the international market and widely used in industries of condiments, medicines and cosmetics. Among all the processes that can be applied to extract the oil, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) can be an efficient and selective one, depending on the operational conditions like temperature and pressure. The aim of study was to compare the supercritical extraction method, using an experimental planning, with conventional extractions methods as hydrodistillation and soxhlet. It was used carbon dioxide as solvent in the SFE, and hexane for the soxhlet extraction. A central composite rotational design (CCRD) was applied varying three pressures (100, 200 and 300 bar) and three temperatures (30, 40 and 50 °C). The yield using soxhlet was the highest (2.39%), followed by SFE (0.43%) and hydrodistillation with 0.26%. The CCRD showed that to optimize the process, it is necessary to raise the temperature and pressure in order to achieve higher yields. It could be concluded that the mathematical modeling well represented the extraction process, making the scale-up a possible alternative.
essential oil; supercritical extraction; experimental planning
