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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Healthy Processed Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #266325
Title: Study of optimal extraction conditions for achieving high yield and antioxidant activity of tomato seed oil

Author
item SHAO, DONGYAN - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item Pan, Zhongli
item YUE, TIANLI - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item ATUNGULU, GRIFFITHS - University Of California
item ZHANG, ANG - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item LI, XUAN - University Of California

Submitted to: Journal of Food Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/9/2012
Publication Date: 8/1/2012
Citation: Shao, D., Pan, Z., Yue, T., Atungulu, G.G., Zhang, A., Li, X. 2012. Study of optimal extraction conditions for achieving high yield and antioxidant activity of tomato seed oil. Journal of Food Science. 77(8):202-208.

Interpretive Summary: This was a comprehensive study on oil extraction from tomato seeds using hexane. We optimized and recommended extraction conditions and developed mathematical models for the extraction with different conditions. The recommended oil extraction conditions are 8 min of extraction time at temperature of 25 degrees C, solvent-to-solids ratio of 5/1 (v/w) and particle size of 0.38 mm, achieving 20.32% oil yield with recovery rate of 78.54%. Based on this research, it is concluded that tomato seeds should be used for oil production due to high oil yield.

Technical Abstract: Tomato seeds resulting from tomato processing by-product have not been effectively utilized as value-added products. This study investigated the kinetics of oil extraction from tomato seeds and sought to optimize the oil extraction conditions. The oil was extracted by using hexane as solvent for 0 to 30 min at temperatures from 25 to 65 degrees C, solvent-to-solid ratios from 3/1 to11/1 (v/w), and particle sizes from 0.38 to 0.93 mm. A second order model was used to describe the kinetics of extraction process and the parameters of the model were established. The results showed that increasing the temperature, solvent-to-solid ratio, and extraction time resulted in increased yield of oil, but large particle size reduced the oil yield. The recommended oil extraction conditions are 8 min of extraction time at temperature of 25 degrees C, solvent-to-solids ratio of 5/1 (v/w) and particle size of 0.38 mm, achieving 20.32% oil yield with recovery rate of 78.54%. The developed kinetics models successfully described the oil extraction process and highly fitted with experimental data with R2 of 0.977. Oil extraction from tomato seeds is an endothermic process based on the Arrhenius equation. The results indicated that tomato seeds have a promising potential for producing oil as a value-added product.