Effect of Operating Parameters on Extraction of Oil from Bitter Gourd Seeds: A Kinetic and Thermodynamic Study

Bitter gourd (Momordicacharantia) is a very nutritious vegetable having high therapeutic value due to the presence of -Eleostearic acid and exhibits anti carcinogenic properties. Present study involves extraction of oil from bitter gourd seeds using soxhlet apparatus with n-hexane as a solvent. The effect of extraction time, volume of solvent and particle size of bitter guard on oil yield was estimated and observed that, the oil yield has increased with increase in time and volume of solvent but decreased with increase in particle size. It was also observed that, a maximum oil yield of 51 % was obtained at 100C for an extraction time of 150 minutes using 15g of dried Bitter Gourd seed and 50 ml of n-hexane. Apart from these, the kinetics and thermodynamics of oil extraction from bitter gourd seeds was also studied. The kinetic studies have shown that the extraction process has fourth order kinetics and the thermodynamic studies reveal that the process is endothermic and requires energy.