Combining high intensity ultrasound and experimental design to improve carotenoid extraction efficiency from Buriti (Mauritia flexuosa)

[Display omitted] •Buriti (Mauritia flexuosa) is a significant source of carotenoids.•The simplex-lattice mixture design modified and CCD were used.•The optimal condition for developed UAE was acetone/ethanol (3:1) and 80 mg of sample for 30 min.•The yield (1026 ± 13 µg g−1) applying UAE was ca. 2-fold higher than known methods.•UAE demonstrated feasibility and reliability for the study of carotenoids in different plant matrices. Buriti (Mauritia flexuosa L.) is a significant source of carotenoids, but these compounds have been extracted using laborious and low-effective methods. The present work evaluated the high-intensity ultrasound combined with a chemometric approach to developing an optimal extraction method of carotenoids from buriti pulp. The multivariate optimization was carried out through two steps. First, a simplex-lattice mixture design was used to optimize the extractor solution finding higher extraction yield (903 ± 21 µg g−1) with the acetone:ethanol (75/25) mixture. After, sample mass (80 mg) and sonication time (30 min) were optimized applying central composite design (CCD) which provided a 14% improvement in the extraction method yield. So, the total carotenoid content (TCC) with optimal extraction conditions was 1026 ± 13 µg g−1which is almost twice the yield of methods known in the literature for buriti. The RP-HPLC-DAD analysis revealed that the carotenoids are gently extracted and β-carotene is the major compound in the extracts. To confirm the accuracy, buriti samples spiked with β-carotene standard and the developed method showed recovery >84% and precision