3. Pharmaceutical and biomedical applications

As the "positive" list of GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) solvents is constantly shrinking, there is keen interest in using supercritical CO ₂ as a solvent for extraction, fractionation and, above all, formulation of pharmaceutical and dermocosmetic active ingredients.

First of all, when products for the pharmaceutical industry are produced, the equipment must be designed, operated, cleaned and maintained in accordance with strict standards for the protection of operators, the environment and the final product (GMP).

• Extraction

  Apart from the extraction of naturally-occurring active ingredients (cf. § 1.), known industrial applications are...