Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences Vol 22 No 6 (2018): 973 - 983

DOI: 10.17576/mjas-2018-2206-07

 

 

 

EXTRACTION OF SQUALENE FROM Aquilaria malaccensis LEAVES USING DIFFERENT EXTRACTION METHODS

 

(Pengekstrakan Skualena daripada Daun Aquilaria malaccensis Menggunakan Kaedah Pengekstrakan yang Berlainan)

 

Wan Nurul Diyana Ramli^1,2, Mohd Azizi Che Yunus^1,2*, Lee Nian Yian¹, Zuhaili Idham¹, Ahmad Hazim Abdul Aziz^1,2, Noor Aiysah Aris^1,2, Nicky Rahmana Putra^1,2, Shahid Kamar Sham²

 

¹Centre of Lipids Engineering & Applied Research (CLEAR), Ibnu Sina Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research

²Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

 

*Corresponding author:  azizi@cheme.utm.my

 

 

Received: 16 April 2017; Accepted: 18 November 2018

 

 

Abstract

Nowadays deep sea sharks species have been hunted for its liver oil as the major source of squalene because of its importance in medical field especially as an antioxidant and anticancer compound. Studies have proved the existence of squalene compound in the Aquilaria malaccensis leaves. Supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂) extraction was done to study the effect of SC-CO₂ operating parameters (pressure and temperature) on the oil yield as well as percentage yield of squalene compound in the oil extracted from the leaves. Both the oil yield and the squalene percentage obtained by using SC-CO₂ extraction method were compared with conventional Soxhlet extraction technique. For SC-CO₂ extraction, the temperature used were 45 °C, 60 °C and 75 °C while the operating pressures were 100 bar, 200 bar and 300 bar. Each extraction process was carried out for 60 minutes with carbon dioxide flow rate of 8 g/min. Meanwhile for Soxhlet extraction, six types of solvents were used (methanol, ethanol, ethyl acetate, n-hexane, acetone and water). Soxhlet extraction gave higher oil yield (45.66%) by using ethanol as solvent compared to SC-CO₂ (13.22%) at 300 bar and 60 °C. However, Soxhlet gave lower squalene percentage in the oil extract (0.78%) by using n-hexane as solvent when compare with SC-CO₂ (3.97%) at 200 bar and 60 °C. These findings reveal that SC-CO₂ extraction is a preferable technique used to extract oil with high percentage of squalene compared to conventional Soxhlet extraction technique with shorter extraction time and higher selectivity on squalene.

 

Keywords:  Aquilaria malaccensis, supercritical carbon dioxide, squalene, gas chromatography analysis

 

Abstrak

Pada masa kini spesies jerung laut dalam diburu kerana minyak hatinya sebagai sumber utama skualena disebabkan kepentingannya dalam bidang perubatan terutama sekali sebagai sebatian antioksida dan antikanser. Kajian telah membuktikan kewujudan sebatian skualena di dalam daun Aquilaria malaccensis. Pengekstrakan karbon dioksida lampau genting (SC-CO₂) telah dijalankan untuk mengkaji kesan parameter operasi SC-CO₂ (tekanan dan suhu) terhadap hasil minyak bersama peratusan hasil sebatian skualena di dalam minyak yang diekstrak daripada daun tersebut. Kedua-dua hasil minyak dan peratusan skualena yang didapati menggunakan kaedah pengekstrakan SC-CO₂ telah dibandingkan dengan kaedah pengekstrakan Soxhlet konvensional. Untuk pengekstrakan SC-CO₂, suhu yang digunakan adalah 45 °C, 60 °C dan 75 °C manakala tekanan operasi pula adalah 100 bar, 200 bar dan 300 bar. Setiap proses pengekstrakan telah dijalankan selama 60 minit dengan kadar aliran karbon dioksida sebanyak 8 g/min. Manakala bagi pengekstrakan Soxhlet, enam jenis pelarut telah digunakan (metanol, etanol, etil asetat, n-heksana, aseton dan air suling). Pengekstrakan Soxhlet memberikan hasil minyak yang lebih tinggi (45.66%) dengan menggunakan etanol sebagai pelarut berbanding pengekstrakan SC-CO₂ (13.22%) pada 300 bar dan 60 °C. Walau bagaimanapun, Soxhlet dengan menggunakan n-heksana sebagai pelarut memberikan peratusan skualena yang lebih rendah di dalam ekstrak minyak (0.78%) apabila dibandingkan dengan SC-CO₂ (3.97%) pada 200 bar dan 60 °C. Hasil penemuan ini mendedahkan bahawa pengekstrakan SC-CO₂ adalah kaedah yang lebih baik untuk mengekstrak minyak dengan peratusan skualena yang tinggi dengan masa pengekstrakan yang lebih singkat dan pemilihan yang lebih tinggi terhadap squalene berbanding kaedah pengekstrakan Soxhlet konvensional.

 

Kata kunci:  Aquilaria malaccensis, karbon dioksida super genting, skualena, analisis kromatografi gas

 

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