Evaluation of Bioactive Compounds and Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Effects of Oil and Pulp without Acai Fat (Euterpe oleracea) Obtained by Supercritical Extraction

For bioactivity studies, it is necessary to use products with a high degree of purity, which may influence the cytotoxic effects. Supercritical technology presents itself as an alternative to obtain these products. Therefore, the objective of this work was to obtain the bioactive compounds of oil and pulp of a & ccedil;a & iacute; fat-free supercritical technology and evaluate the cytotoxicity of products in MRC-5 and VERO cells in vitro. The a & ccedil;a & iacute; pulp was subjected to extraction with supercritical CO2 to obtain the oil and pulp without fat, under conditions of 323.15 K at 35 MPa, 333.15 K at 42 MPa, and 343.15 K at 49 MPa. The largest yields (51.74%), carotenoids (277.09 mu g/g), DPPH (2.55 mu mol TE/g), ABTS (2.60 mu mol TE/g), and FRAP (15.25 mu m of SF/g) of oil and ABTS (644.23 mu mol TE/g) of pulp without fat were found in the condition 343.15 K at 49 MPa. The highest levels of compounds phenolics (150.20 mg GAE/g), DPPH (414.99 mu mol TE/g), and FRAP (746.2 mu m SF/g) of the pulp without fat were found in the condition of 323.15 K to 35 MPa. The fat-free pulp presented high levels of anthocyanins without significant variation in cytotoxicity. The developed process was efficient in obtaining oil rich in carotenoids, and the supercritical technology elucidated an efficient way to obtain acai fat-free pulp.