On the application of supercritical fluid extraction to the deacidification of olive oils

Levitation and dynamics of bodies in supersaturated fluids

A body immersed in a supersaturated fluid like carbonated water can accumulate a dynamic field of bubbles upon its surface. If the body is mobile, the attached bubbles can lift it upward against gravity, but a fluid-air interface can clean the surface of these lifting agents and the body may plummet. The process then begins anew, and continues for as long as the concentration of gas in the fluid supports it. In this work, experiments using fixed and free immersed bodies reveal fundamental features of force development and gas escape. A continuum model which incorporates the dynamics of a surface buoyancy field is used to predict the ranges of body mass and size, and fluid properties, for which the system is most dynamic, and those for which body excursions are suppressed. Simulations are then used to probe systems which are dominated by a small number of large bubbles. Body rotations at the surface are critical for driving periodic vertical motions of large bodies, which in turn can produce body wobbling, rolling, and damped surface 'bouncing' dynamics.

Extraction and quantitation of digoxin and acetyldigoxin from the Digitalis lanata leaf via near-supercritical methanol-modified carbon dioxide

An extraction process is reported that employs a near-supercritical mixture of CO2 and MeOH to extract the cardiac glycoside, digoxin, from the Digitalis lanata leaf. The method development of the sample preparation procedure is presented in detail, and reasons for trends that occur in the natural products extraction are given.