Application of supercritical CO2 fluid extraction technology in extractive technique of propolis

The extractive technique of propolis is the most important processes of propolis and has great impacts on the constitutions and biological activities of propolis products.Supercritical CO2 fluid extraction technology is one of the latest extracting methods which has been widely used in the food industry.The present paper reviewed the basic principles and the major influencing factors in supercritical CO2 fluid extraction method.The application of supercritical CO2 fluid extraction in extracting flavonoids and essential oil of propolis was reviewed, the merits and demerits of this method were also presented.Although there were many benefits for using supercritical CO2 fluid extraction to extract the flavonoids and the essential oils in raw propolis combing with proper technological parameters and appropriate cosolvents, the suitability of using supercritical CO2 fluid extraction in propolis is still controversial.Therefore, more researches might focus on the technological parameters, the component analysis and the studies on the biological activities of the supercritical CO2 fluid extraction in propolis were necessary.