Question

A pharmaceutical company wants to extract an ingredient from pomace supplied by a certain food processing plant. What are two methods they might chose to use? How could different criteria and/or constraints affect the decision on how to extract the material? In three to five sentences, describe two methods, including one criterion and one constraint that would affect extraction methods.(4 points)

Answer 1

Two methods the pharmaceutical company might use to extract an ingredient from pomace are solvent extraction and steam distillation. Solvent extraction involves using a solvent to dissolve the desired compounds from the pomace, which can be efficient for certain types of compounds. A key criterion for this method could be the solubility of the target compound in various solvents, while a constraint might be regulatory limits on residual solvents in the final product. Conversely, steam distillation uses steam to volatilize and subsequently condense certain thermally sensitive compounds, suitable for extracting essential oils. A criterion for this method could be the temperature sensitivity of the target ingredient, while a constraint might be the potential degradation of heat-sensitive compounds during the process.