Extraction of neutral lipids and phospholipids from marine biomasses using subcritical and supercritical fluids

Supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) and subcritical dimethylether (DME) were used to extract lipids from partially to fully dry marine biomass - whole jack mackerel (WJM), Hoki frames and heads (HFH), and Greenshell mussel meat (GSM). scCO2 gave a lower extraction yield of total lipids from GSM (42%) compared to WFH and HFH (86 - 88% yield) due to the higher concentration of phospholipids present in GSM. DME gave a higher extraction yield of total lipids and phospholipids than scCO2 for all marine biomass types. Phospholipid yield from GSM using DME was dependent on moisture content of the feed marine biomass and decreased with decreasing moisture content. Our results suggested that phospholipid extraction yield can be optimised by partly drying biomass to 30 - 50% moisture prior to extraction. DME extracts contained good levels of omega-3 fatty acids with minimal hydrolytic phospholipid degradation, thus providing a potential processing technology option to recover them from marine biomass.