Superheated Water Extraction of Catechins from Green Tea Leaves: Modeling and Simulation

Authors

Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering,Sharif University of Technology

Abstract

Catechins from fresh green tea leaves as potential sources of anticancer and antioxidant
components were target materials in this work. Superheated water extraction, which is a kind of leaching
operation, and solvent partition with chloroform and ethyl acetate were utilized to recover Catechins
from tea leaves. Then, a mathematical model was developed to simulate the superheated water extraction
of Catechins. The unsteady state mass balance of the solute in solid and superheated water phases
led to two partial di erential equations. The model was solved numerically using a linear equilibrium
relationship. The model parameters were predicted applying existing experimental correlations. An
intraparticle di usion coecient was used as the model tuning parameter. The model is able to show
the in
uence of di erent process parameters, such as time of extraction, particle size and the ratio of
water/leaves (v/w), on Catechin recovery.

Keywords