What is supercritical extract?
Supercritical extraction uses carbon dioxide at critical temperatures and pressures to extract the active ingredients of the neem leaf (or indeed, any other herb), without the usual high temperatures or harsh chemicals. This results in a far more concentrated extract, which closely resembles the fresh herb.
Our neem is extracted shortly after harvesting to capture the beneficial phytochemicals (the plant's natural ingredients) with superior potency and purity. These extracts are offered as a dietary supplement, or in some cases, supercritical extracts are found in the ingredients lists for several of our personal care products (see the Neem Therapy range).
Many conventional extracts use heat, alcohol or other chemical solvents such as butylene or propylene glycols, acetone and other petroleum derivatives. Supercritical Extracts are superior for many reasons:
- Beneficial phytochemicals are easily damaged by heat
- Many phytochemicals are not soluble in water and alcohol or oil. The supercritical extraction process enables delivery of a broad spectrum of phytochemicals, including both the lipophobic (water soluble) and lipophilic (oil soluble) isolates
- The extract is naturally alcohol and solvent free
- It results in a broad spectrum, very concentrated extract
Conventional water and alcohol extracts contain only the lipophobic components. However, it is often the lipophilic components that are the most beneficial. The Super Critical Extraction process results in an herbal extract that is very potent (often more than 100 times stronger than conventional extracts), very pure and broad spectrum, closely resembling the herb in its whole form.
In addition, this extraction process uses only carbon dioxide as a solvent, which once the pressure is let off, evaporates completely from the extract - leaving it totally pure and free of any solvent residues.
What is 'supercritical'?
When you increase pressure, temperature also increases. When you compress a gas, it will become a liquid. The 'Super Critical Point' is the exact temperature and pressure at which a gas becomes a liquid. In the case of carbon dioxide, this is a relatively low 31deg.
Compressed CO2 at this point has the density of a liquid, but the properties of a gas. As such this aids in faster diffusion of the phytochemicals (almost twice that of other liquids), whilst the liquid-like state helps in better solubility of the phytochemicals. Once the extraction is complete, the pressure is released and the CO2 is harmlessly released.
The process is very environmentally friendly.