Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) process development of Thuja Occidentalis essential oil

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Thuja Occidentalis called also eastern white cedar is an eastern Canada native tree. The plant leaves were first identified as a remedy by native Indians in Canada during the 16th century for the treatment of scurvy. In traditional medicine, Thuja occidentalis work as a psoriasis, bronchial catarrh, uterine carcinomas and rheumatism treatment. Thuja occidentalis essential oil has curative properties such as treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome and has vermifuge and insecticidal properties. The essential oil of plants has been usually isolated by either hydrodistillation or solvent extraction. These techniques presents some drawbacks such as loss of volatile compounds, low extraction efficiency, long extraction time, degradation of unsaturated compound and toxic solvent residue. that make mandatory the use of alternative techniques for essential oil extraction. An alternative is supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) using CO2 as the supercritical fluid, which produces solvent-free extracts at low temperatures thus avoiding the degradation of active compound. CO2 is widely used because it is non toxic, chemically stable, environmentally acceptable and easily separate from the extract since it exists as a gas under normal atmospheric conditions. Furthermore, supercritical extracts have a superior quality by comparison with extracts produced by hydrodistillation or with liquid solvents. ANPI Canada, a company specialized in forest extracts, wants to develop a supercritical fluid process with CO2 to extract a high quality essential oil from eastern white cedar with no carbon footprint.