Moringa oleifera L. Screening: SFE-CO 2 Optimisation and Chemical Composition of Seed, Leaf, and Root Extracts as Potential Cosmetic Ingredients

Moringa oleifera L. tree (Mo) has emerged as a rich alternative source of bioactive compounds to design cosmetic formulations. Supercritical carbon dioxide fluid extraction (SFE-CO 2 ) was successfully applied on the screening of Mo seed, leaf, and root extracts. The extraction yield was evaluated by response surface methodology (RSM), for pressure and temperature ranges of 117–273 bar and 41–60 °C, respectively, using a design of experiments (DOE). The pressure significantly affected the results ( α = 0.05 ), with the highest extraction efficiency obtained at conditions above 195 bar. The extracts’ composition, evaluated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS), revealed an increasing correlation between the pressure, total extract solubility, and mass of extract at a constant temperature, due to the higher extraction yield. Seed extracts presented more than 80% of oleic acid in relative composition (8.04 mg compound ∙g plantpart −1 ). Leaf extracts performed well for the obtainment of linolenic acid (>20%; 3.10 mg∙g −1 ), nonacosane (>22%; 0.46 mg∙g −1 ), and α-tocopherol (>20%; 0.21 mg∙g −1 ). Mo root resulted in higher relative composition for sterol molecules, despite its very low affinity with CO 2 . The most promising bioactive compounds, oleic acid and α-tocopherol, were more abundant when operating at 250 bar at 45 °C and 195 bar at 55 °C, for Mo seed and leaf SFE-CO 2 extracts, respectively.