More about extraction techniques

Our company has the best extraction techniques to bring out the features of each material.
It is possible to create natural extracts with different flavors, active ingredients, and colors by changing the extraction method even if the same material is used.

For example, regarding active ingredients, we have physiological activity data from cinnamon bark that was extracted through various extraction methods. (As shown below)
The data clearly shows that the activities of the extracts obtained by hot water extraction, ethanol extraction, and supercritical (CO₂) extraction are different and that the extract from the supercritical CO₂ extraction has the highest activity and is suitable for cosmetics.

The example indicated below shows that when the tyrosinase inhibitory activity was selected and tested, the extract from supercritical CO₂ extraction had the highest tyrosinase inhibitory activity, but in some other tests which examined other physiological activities, water extraction was shown to be effective.

We are conducting research to find out the best extraction methods applicable to various products, so as to be able to say, “XX extract can be used for cosmetics, XX extract for drinks, and XX extract for food…”
In addition, by changing the extraction method, we can characterize the products not only from the aspect of active ingredients, but also from the aspects of flavor and color.

Supercritical extraction (supercritical CO₂) plant device

This is a plant that performs extraction using supercritical CO₂.The supercritical extraction (CO₂ extraction) plant can pressurize up to 50MPa and can primarily extract hydrophobic ingredients at a highly concentrated level.Supercritical extraction (CO₂ extraction) is effective in extracting ingredients sensitive to heat or those that need to be prevented from oxidizing. This can be done without the use of any residual solvents.
As we have a test machine that is 1/1000 the size of the actual production machine, we can experimentally perform supercritical extraction (CO₂ extraction) using about 100g of raw material before manufacturing the product.
If you are interested in creating a sample using this test machine before manufacturing your product, please contact us.

What is supercritical CO² extraction?

It is an extraction process that uses a CO₂ fluid that is beyond the limit (critical point) of temperature and pressure in which gas and liquid can coexist, and has a gas property (diffusion property) of being able to enter anywhere and also a liquid property (solubility) that dissolves ingredients.

【Characteristics of supercritical CO₂ extraction】

Supercritical CO₂ has a characteristic of dissolving terpenoids, low-polarity ingredients, and oils and fats which makes it suitable for extracting these ingredients.
Hydrophilic ingredients that dissolve into water (boiled water) are not suitable to be extracted, but the addition of a small amount of ethanol or water in supercritical CO₂ increases the dissolution levels of flavonoids, alkaloids, and glycoside, resulting in it being possible to obtain the extracts.