Rational Technological Parameters of the Soxhlet Extractor in the Production of Alcoholic Extracts from Сranberries

Introduction. Vegetable raw materials have always been and still remain the main raw material for obtaining extracts. The extraction process is the most important stage during the production of extracts and aromatic spirits. The research objective was to study the extraction process of the target substances from fruit and berry raw materials for the production of alcoholic extracts. Study objects and methods. The study featured cranberries, which are widespread in Siberia and have many useful properties. Cranberries are rich in vitamins C, B1, B2, B5, B6, PP and rarer vitamin K1. The studies were conducted using a Soxhlet extractor. The experimental results were processed using the method of multiple regression analysis. The research also exploited generally accepted methods for assessing the quality of samples of alcoholic beverages. Results and discussion. The experiments made it possible to define the optimal technological regime parameters for the production of aromatic cranberry extract. The maximum values of all three processing parameters exerted the greatest effect on the dry matter content in cranberry extract. The recommended conditions resulted in a cranberry extract with a high content of target components. The presented mathematical description of the extraction process in the Soxhlet extractor makes it possible to preliminarily determine the quality indicators of the resulting beverage at the onset of production. Control experiments conducted under these conditions confirmed the calculated values. Conclusion. By using a Soxhlet extractor, the preparation time for alcoholic cranberry extract was reduced to 20 minutes, which differs by one order of magnitude from the classical infusion production method. The Soxhlet extractor made it possible to use less solvent and raw materials, due to the almost maximum completeness of extraction of the target components of fruit and berry raw materials. This fact is bound to decrease the production expenses and the cost of the final product.