Resumen
Plenty extraction technique has been study to perform the extraction process. Solvent extraction and hydrodistillation is the conventional and oldest method for the extraction. However, there have some limitation when using these techniques. Soxhlet extraction used the hazardous solvent which is hexane. This method also required additional process to separate the solvent with the extract. Hyrodistillation used higher amount of water at high temperature. Volatile molecules often losses and chemical modification of oil component also happen due to elevated temperature. Not only that, partial or fully degradation of natural constituents occurs due to the same reason. Both two methods required long time to perform the extraction process. An alternative technique which is supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) was introduced to replace the conventional methods of extraction. This method is more environmentally friendly and suitable for natural-based products. Lemongrass is chosen because the values present in the plant itself. This plant has a great bioactivity such as it has antibacterial, antioxidant, antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties. This oils also is a source of vitamin such as vitamin A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, folate and vitamin C. The objectives of this research are to perform the extraction process using supercritical carbon dioxide to extract lemongrass oil and to study the vitamin C retention of the lemongrass oil. The SFE was performed at different pressure (4000, 5000 and 6000psi) and extraction temperature (50°C and 60°C). The results show higher extraction yield at 60°C and 6000psi. Vitamin C inside the samples was analysed using HPLC and shows that vitamin C concentration increase by increase the concentration of lemongrass. The highest peak area is 49636.05nV.s at 446µg/ml of lemongrass oil concentration. The vitamin C concentration per 100µg/ml extracted oil sample reduced at higher temperature and pressure.