FLAVEX Naturextrakte GmbH –
A Pioneer in Supercritical Fluid Extraction
Background
FLAVEX Naturextrakte GmbH is a private and innovative enterprise,
specialised exclusively in supercritical fluid extraction. All
products are developed, produced and certified at the company’s site in
Germany near the border of France and the Benelux countries. FLAVEX has many
years of experience in high pressure plant design and operation as
well as in
phyto-chemistry
and evaluation of herbal extracts.
The company is focussed on speciality extracts from a wide range of
botanical raw materials. The products are sold worldwide as ingredients to
the food and flavour, the nutraceuticals and
cosmetics industries. Since 1986, FLAVEX products have been established
successfully on the market and the company meanwhile enjoys a real
partnership with many indigenous and foreign industrial customers.
Activity
From the raw materials of herbs and spices FLAVEX extracts
flavours,
fragrances and active ingredients in a natural way, without
leaving any residues by supercritical fluid extraction - a gentle
technology for the recovery of fragile plant ingredients. Carbon dioxide
(CO2), the gas that gives all the freshness to sparkling
drinks, is the new and Generally Recognised as Safe (GRAS)-approved solvent
for lipophilic
molecules. The high-pressure process works without the stress of high
temperatures and guarantees the retention of the valuable substance
composition of the raw material. The method is environmentally safe,
without harmful emissions and without waste streams, thus avoiding problems,
restrictions and expenses connected with conventional extraction procedures.
FLAVEX operates extraction plants on the laboratory, pilot
and
production
scales designed for an extraction pressure of up to 500 bar (7,500 pounds
per square inch). Their capacity ranges from a few kilograms to several tons
of botanical input material a day, giving a total throughput of 1,000 tons a
year. Besides the extraction of solids, liquids can also be
extracted or fractionated, on small as well as on large scale. The
extraction technology is designed and constantly optimised on the base of
many years' operation and know-how. Equipped with state of the art
measurement and control systems, the extraction plants are best suitable for
solving critical separation problems.
The production also includes the availability of a wide range of
machinery for material preparation and conditioning, such as cutting and
powdering mills and pelletising, mixing and sieving machines. The mills are
cooled by injection of liquid CO2. In this way different raw
materials, herbs and spices, flowers, seeds, barks and roots can be
optimally prepared for CO2-extraction, just in time and without
loosing volatile or sensitive components.
Quality
The control of raw materials and extracts is the task of the well-trained
analysts at FLAVEX. They develop analytical procedures, establish product
specifications, characterise the products and determine the content of
valuable ingredients with modern analytical procedures. Competence,
continuous research and development efforts as well as detailed and
traceable documentation of all relevant process steps guarantee authentic
products and are the base of our stringent product quality. Ensuring quality
is one of the major tasks and a foundation of the company's philosophy.
Products
CO2-extracts are a product category of their own. Their
unique spectrum of ingredients offers new possibilities in creative product
development especially where quality and added value are important. They are
used in food flavour formulations and as active ingredients in health food
production.
 CO2-extracts
have a concentrated and high grade composition. They are practically sterile
and need no preservation since they don’t provide any base for germ growths
due to the absence of water, proteins and sugars, and they are easy to
standardise.
FLAVEX offers a comprehensive range of herb and spice CO2-extracts
such as ginger extracts which are composed at the same time of a high
content of up to 40% essential oil and of a high content of up to 30%
pungent gingerols. Thus they can easily replace a conventional
mixture of ginger oleoresin and ginger distillate.
CO2 vanilla extracts are containing 12%, 26% or even
95% of natural ex-vanilla vanillin and thus are much more concentrated than
normal hydro-alcoholic vanilla extracts.
The ultra natural rosemary and sage antioxidants can be extracted with a
high-grade composition of active diterpenphenols with mainly
carnosolic acid
which is partly decomposed to carnosol in other extraction procedures.
Rosemary antioxidants improve the product shelf-life and they can be useful
bioactive components in cosmetic and food supplements fighting against free
radical formation.
CO2-extracts make your product simply better.
FLAVEX Naturextrakte GmbH
Nordstrasse 7
D-66780 Rehlingen-Siersburg
Germany
Tel.: +49 (0) 6835/9195-0
Fax:+ 49 (0) 6835/9195-95
web: www.flavex.com
|
