Vegetable oils as alternative solvents for green oleo-extraction, purification and formulation of food and natural products

Abstract

Since solvents of petroleum origin are now strictly regulated worldwide, there is a growing demand for using greener, bio-based and renewable solvents for extraction, purification and formulation of natural and food products. The ideal alternative solvents are non-volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that have high dissolving power and flash point, together with low toxicity and less environmental impact. They should be obtained from renewable resources at a reasonable price and be easy to recycle. Based on the principles of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering, vegetable oils could become an ideal alternative solvent to extract compounds for purification, enrichment, or even pollution remediation. This review presents an overview of vegetable oils as solvents enriched with various bioactive compounds from natural resources, as well as the relationship between dissolving power of non-polar and polar bioactive components with the function of fatty acids and/or lipid classes in vegetable oils, and other minor components. A focus on simulation of solvent-solute interactions and a discussion of polar paradox theory propose a mechanism explaining the phenomena of dissolving polar and non-polar bioactive components in vegetable oils as green solvents with variable polarity.

Edinson Yara Varón thanks to fellowship funding (No. TECSPR14-2-0029) from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union (FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement No. 600388 (TECNIOspring programme), and from the Agency for Business Competitiveness of the Government of Catalonia, ACCIÓ. Ying Li would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 31701633) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant 17817028), as well as special funds from “SanWu Talent 2014” and sixth “100-Talent” Programs.