Ultrasonic assisted extraction of vegetable oil from Chia seeds (Salvia hispanica L.) and its antioxidant and anti-diabetic activities

Ultrasonic assisted extraction was used to extract vegetable oil from Chia (Salvia hispanica L.) seeds and the biological properties of the oil were determined. A design of a four- factor box Behnken-type experiment was used to analyze the impact on the oil extraction yield of the amplitude (40, 55, 70 %), the number of pulsations per minute (40, 50, 60), the extraction time (20, 25, 30min) and the ethanol concentration (50, 60, 70%), applying the response surface methodology (RSM). The ethanol concentration and the number of pulses had the greatest effects on the extraction efficiency. The optimum yield was 5.48%, obtained with amplitude of 70%, a number of pulsations per minute of 50.73, an extraction time of 30min and an ethanol concentration of 50%. The biological activity of the obtained oil varied according to the operating conditions and exhibited a strong antioxidant activity up to an IC50 of 3.22 μg/mL and an excellent antidiabetic activity of 105.27 μg /ml.