Evaluación de la actividad antioxidante, rendimiento global y perfil de ácidos grasos de los aceites obtenidos a partir de la Ungurahua (Oenocarpus batata) mediante propano subcrítico y Soxhlet. Articulado al proyecto de investigación aprobado mediante Resolución Nro. UTA-CONIN-2023-0204-R

Abstract

Oenocarpus bataua, commonly known as ungurahua, is an endemic palm from South America’s Amazon region, high valued for its content of vegetable oils and bioactive compounds. The extraction of these oils has been carried out by ancestral techniques and, most recently, conventional methods. However, there are non-conventional alternatives, such as extraction with subcritical propane, whose application in ungurahua has not yet been documented. In this study, global yield, antioxidant capacity, and fatty acid profile of extracted oils by subcritical propane and Soxhlet with hexane were compared. The raw material was characterized prior to extraction with both methods to determine the extraction yield. Antioxidant activity was evaluated using DPPH technique and fatty acid profile was analyzed by thin-layer chromatography (TLC). The fat content in the sample was 21.7 percent. The subcritical propane method showed a higher yield, reaching 27.28 percent, while the Soxhlet method achieved 24.06 percent. Likewise, the antioxidant capacity was higher in the oil extracted with subcritical propane, with 362.5 micromoles of Trolox per gram of extract, compared to 299.4 using the Soxhlet method. Both methods produced extracts with similar TLC profiles, showing the presence of various fatty acids, sterols, and other polar molecules, which contribute to the observed antioxidant activity. ANOVA analysis revealed significant differences in antioxidant capacity between the two extraction methods, whereas no such differences were observed in extraction yield.