Traditional non polar solvents like alkanes are obtained from non-renewable sources. The idea of Green Chemistry has its roots in sustainable development. Green Analytical Chemistry emerged from green chemistry in 2000. The principles of Green Analytical Chemistry emphasize the importance of using reagents obtained from renewable sources, eliminate toxic reagents and increase safety of the operator. The use of limonene as non-polar extracting agent in order to replace hexane has been slightly studied. Limonene is obtained from citrus peel residues, being the main compound in the terpene fraction of citrus peel oil. This compound possesses a dielectric constant close to hexane and has thus been suggested as a valuable green alternative to n-alkanes and halogenated hydrocarbons. In the present work a fast method for the isolation of high value lipids is presented involving the use of limonene, a green biodegradable solvent, as an alternative to traditional hexane extraction. The optimized process is based on pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) at 180°C for 15 min using limonene:ethanol (1:1). To prove the method efficacy, the extraction of lipids from marine microorganisms was selected. One green alga (Stigeoclonium) and four cyanobacteria (Spirulina, Nostoc, Anabaena and Phormidium) were tested. After extraction, lipids were analyzed by a Fast-GC-MS method.

This work has been financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science (Project AGL2011-29857-C03-01). M.-T. Golmakani wishes to thank Iran Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology (# 42/4/52566) and Research council of the University of Tehran for supporting his stay in CIAL-CSIC, Spain. Authors would like to thank Spanish Bank of Algae (BEA) at University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain (http://bea.marinebiotechnology.org) for the donation of samples.

Trabajo presentado a la XIII Reunión Científica de la Sociedad Española de Cromatografía y Técnicas Afines celebrada en Tenerife (España) del 8 al 11 de octubre de 2013.

Peer Reviewed