Concentration of plant and herbal extracts

A shift towards healthier lifestyles has dramatically increased use of botanical based nutraceuticals such as functional extracts of herbs, vegetables, fruits and other plants.

The production of plant extracts typically requires the following process steps:

• Extraction of the active ingredient from the naturally occuring raw material using water or organic solvent.
• Separation of the extract (now containing the active compound/s) from the spent raw material.
• Evaporation of the water or organic solvent from the extract in order to increase the concentration of the active ingredient in order to produce a concentrated liquid extract.

The liquid extract may be used as is or further processed into a dry powder.

The minimisation of loss and / or damage to the compounds of interest is critical to the efficacy of the finished product. Active ingredients are generally regarded as heat sensitive and, as such, the preservation of these compounds is of paramount importance during the concentration stage as heat is applied to evaporate the solvent.

The Centritherm® Spinning Cone Evaporator is a unique system for concentration of, and solvent removal from, a range of health industry products including, nutraceuticals, plant extracts, biological derivatives, enzymes and pharmaceuticals.

Concentrates produced by the Centritherm® evaporator are of extremely high quality as the thermal impact they experience during processing is negligible. In fact, solutions containing active ingredients may be concentrated by the Centritherm® evaporator with no loss of functionality.

Key benefits of the Centritherm® evaporator are:

Negligible thermal impact

A high quality concentrate is produced as the thermal impact experienced by the juice is negligible. That is, the contact time between the product and the heating surface is very short (only one second) and the evaporation temperature low - about (50°C). This means no loss of functionality, colour, activity or other important product properties.

Low hold-up volume

The Centritherm® evaporator is perfect for concentrating small batches as the low hold-up volume results in minimal loss of valuable product at the end of a production run.

Range of concentration levels

A range of concentration factors may be achieved (without product recycle).

Viscous products

Viscous concentrates are easily handled in the Centritherm® evaporator .

Validation

The RM series of Centritherm® evaporators may be readily opened for inspection and validation.

Hygienic system

The hygienic nature of the Centritherm® evaporator system means it is ideally suited to nutraceutical applications.

A range of Centritherm® evaporator models is available for batch or continuous processing.

Click here to find out more about the Centritherm® evaporator .

Herbal extracts
Green tea
Omega 3
Aloe Vera
Grape seed Extract