Pressurized solvent extraction of total lipids in poultry meat

Pressurized solvent extraction is an innovative method for rapid extraction of analytes. It uses liquid solvents at high temperature (from 60 to 200 °C) and pressure (from 3.5 to 20 MPa), through a stainless steel extraction cell containing a solid sample. In this study, an ASE instrument was used for the quantitative determination of the fat content in homogenised poultry meat samples. The recovery of total lipids obtained by ASE extraction was compared to those obtained by conventional methods, such as the Folch method and acid hydrolysis, followed by Soxhlet extraction. Two different solvent mixtures (chloroform/methanol and n-hexane/2-propanol) were tested at various temperatures and pressures and with different sample preparations. The composition of the extracts from each method were determined and compared by thin-layer chromatographic (TLC) analysis; a CGC analysis of the fatty acid composition of the extracts was carried out.