Abstract
Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) is considered a great source of secondary metabolites of commercial interest and the extraction of this kind of metabolites is important for the process viability and scale-up. Different alternatives have been evaluated, including Soxhlet extraction and the use of supercritical fluids, mainly on laboratory scale. As an innovative approach, hydro-cavitation has emerged as an efficient alternative for extracting principles from plants at low temperatures and short operational times. This work presents the experimental extraction of ß-carotene from Stinging nettle employing hydro-cavitation. Ethanol was used as solvent at different concentrations (100%, 90%, 80% and 60%) and two w/v solute/solvent ratio (1:30 and 2:30). The concentration of chlorophyll A, B, total chlorophylls (A+B), carotenes, and ß-carotenes were determined. The best concentration of ß-carotenes was obtained at 2:30 solute/solvent ratio with ethanol at 100% and an operational time of 2 min, corresponding to 153.975 mg ß-carotenes/kg, with a power consumption of 0.7698 kJ/mg ß-carotene extracted. The results support the viability of the use of hydro-cavitation as fast and efficient process for obtaining of Stinging nettle extracts on a pilot scale and open the possibility for the design of process on an industrial scale..
