Vol. 12, Issue 6 (2023)

Author(s):
Libin John, Febin Shaji, Jagadeeswari Kanagaraj, Manjula Belagihalli Siddalingappa, Ramesh Kumar Palayyan and Jenita Thinakaran

Abstract:
Dragon fruit is well known for its health benefits. It contains essential minerals, vitamins and is rich in fibre. The oil yield content of the dragon fruit (Hylocereus spp.) extract was analysed using Soxhlet apparatus with methanol and ethanol as solvents is varying amounts and different extraction times and varying temperature. The effects of temperature, time, dry fruit weight in grams, and solvent polarity on oil yields were studied. At temperatures at 60 °C, 65 °C, 68 °C, and 70 °C using 99.9% of methanol and 99.8% ethanol as solvents. The best conditions were chosen from initial studies and repeated to confirm the effects of the varying conditions. It was found that a temperature of 68 °C with methanol as the solvent yielded the greatest yield of 90.37% (w/w) for methanol and 87.75% (w/w) for ethanol.