Chemometric Study of Perilla Fatty Acids from Subcritical n-Propane Extracted Oil

Oil from perilla (Perilla frutescens) was extracted using subcritical n-propane and also the Soxhlet official methodology, for comparison. This work aimed at assessing the influence of the temperature and pressure factors on the composition of fatty acids (FA), using a full 22 factorial design in triplicate with central point. Both factors were significant for increasing the yield of extracted FA. The response surfaces showed that increasing pressure and temperature allowed the extraction of higher levels of n-3 and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and greater ratio values of PUFA and saturated fatty acids (SFA). According to the desirability function, the best condition of extraction using n-propane was 80 degrees C for temperature and 8 MPa for pressure. In multivariate analysis the optimum condition was characterized by a higher content of PUFA, especially alphalinolenic fatty acid, while the Soxhlet methodology was characterized by high level of SFA.