Supercritical fluid technology

Our lab specializes in supercritical fluid technology for extraction and development of nanosized formulations using polymers and lipids. Solvents mainly used for supercritical fluid extraction are carbon dioxide, water and ethane. Carbon dioxide is used most frequently compared to other solvents, is well established as a green solvent and we have used it extensively for our research and formulation development. The most important parameters that affect the process of extraction are pressure, temperature, solvent used, solute nature and percentage of co-solvent etc. As carbon dioxide is a non-polar solvent it extracts mainly non-polar compounds.

Advantages of employing supercritical fluids are -

1. Beneficial for the thermally labile compounds

2. Fast extraction process

3. Green process

Our present work on supercritical fluid extraction is on extraction of Wrightia tinctoria using supercritical carbon dioxide. This plant show anti-psoriatic activity and reported in many literature. Bio-actives that show anti-psoriatic activity are triterpenoids and flavonoids. We are also working with rapid expansion for supercritical solution (RESS) technology to develop nano sized formulations for malaria therapy and brucellosis prevention.

Planetary ball mills are used wherever the highest degree of fineness is required. Apart from the classical mixing and size reduction processes, the mills also meet all the technical requirements for colloidal grinding and have the energy input necessary for mechanical alloying processes. The extremely high centrifugal forces of planetary ball mills result in very high pulverization energy and therefore short grinding times. The grinding jar is arranged eccentrically on the sun wheel of the planetary ball mill. The direction of movement of the sun wheel is opposite to that of the grinding jars in the ratio 1:1. The grinding balls in the grinding jars are subjected to superimposed rotational movements, the so-called Coriolis forces. The difference in speeds between the balls and grinding jars produces an interaction between frictional and impact forces, which releases high dynamic energies. The interplay between these forces produces the high and very effective degree of size reduction of the planetary ball mill.

Applications-

1. Grinding and mixing of dry powders

2. Mixing of semisolids like creams and ointments

3. Particle size reduction up to nano size (100 nm) without using of organic solvent