This work has been intended to investigate the antioxidant properties of compounds extracted from seeds of Sterculia apetala (a plant from Central America) in order to add further results to the relatively poor existing literature on the beneficial properties of this plant. Different extraction methodologies were used such as batch or continuous extraction conditions using water or ethanol 50% as solvents. The kinetic study has allowed estimation of the effective diffusion coefficients in a continuous solid-liquid extraction, highlighting the strict dependence of the diffusion rate and temperature and kind of solvent, showing the highest diffusion rate with ethanol 50% at 60 °C. The comparison between different techniques and two solvents led to the selection of water as the best extraction solvent while batch mechanically-agitated extraction was the most efficient mode, with the benefits of use of an environmental-friendly solvent and reduction in process time to achieve a high amount of extracted phenolic compounds. The analysis techniques used were ABTS and Folin-Ciocalteau methods to investigate the antioxidant activity and quantify the Total Phenolic Content (TPC) respectively. Also, different fatty acids were extracted from Sterculia apetala seeds and analysed by Gas Chromatography in order to quantify other interesting chemical species besides antioxidants.
Keywords: Sterculia apetala; continuous extraction; fatty acids; kinetic diffusion; natural antioxidant.