Separation Techniques

M. Angela A. Meireles

Professor
University of Campinas
Brazil

Biography

M. Angela A. Meireles is the Director of Innovation of Bioativos Naturais, the Coordinator of Food Science of CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) and a professor of Food Engineering at UNICAMP (University of Campinas), Brazil, where she began working in 1983 as an assistant professor. In 2016, she retired from UNICAMP where she still holds the position of professor for the post-graduate program in Food Engineering and is the leading research of four technology transfer projects: i) Development of a process to obtain an extract from Cannabis sativa (http://entouragelab.com/index.html) for ENTOURAGE Brasil; ii) Development of an integrated process to produce bioactives for the cosmetic industry (https://pt-br.facebook.com/scosmeticosdobem/) and iii) Assembling a supercritical fluid pilot plant to process algae (http://www.cietec.org.br/project/bioativos/). During her time in academia prof. Meireles taught among other courses thermodynamics, mass transfer, design and so on at the undergraduate and graduate level. She worked closely with industries developing GRAS processes for obtaining extracts from a variety of natural resources. After her retirement from UNICAMP she became a business partner of Bioativos Naturais. She holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University, USA (1982) and MSc and BS degrees in Food Engineering both from UNICAMP (1979 and 1977). Dr. Meireles has published over 250 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and has made more than 500 presentations at scientific conferences. Dr. Meireles has supervised 46 PhD dissertations, 31 MSc theses, and approximately 68 undergraduate research projects. Her research is in the field of the production of extracts from aromatic, medicinal, and spice plants by supercritical fluid extraction and conventional techniques, such as steam distillation and GRAS (or green) solvent extraction, including the determination of process parameters, process integration and optimization, extraction fractionation, and technic and economic analysis. She has coordinated scientific exchange projects between UNICAMP and European universities in France, Germany, Holland, and Spain. Nationally, she coordinated a project (SuperNat) that involved 6 Brazilian institutions (UNICAMP, UFPA, UFRN, UEM, UFSC, IAC) and a Germany University (TUHH). In 2000–2005, Dr. Meireles coordinated a Thematic Project financed by FAPESP (State of São Paulo Science Foundation) on supercritical technology applied to the processing of essentials oils, vegetable oils, pigments, stevia, and other natural products. She has coordinated four technology transfer projects in supercritical fluid extraction from native Brazilian plants. She coordinated two projects in supercritical fluid chromatography to analyze petroleum in a partnership with PETROBRAS and to analyze food system in a partnership with Water Technologies of Brazil. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Food and Public Health and the Associate Editor of Food Science and Technology (Campinas). She belongs to the editorial boards of The Journal of Supercritical Fluids, Journal of Food Processing Engineering (Blackwell-Publishing); Recent Patents on Engineering (Bentham Science Publishers); The Open Chemical Engineering Journal (Bentham Science Publishers); Pharmacognosy Reviews (Pharmacognosy Networld); Food and Bioprocess Technologies (Springer). She was the CoEIC of Recent Patents on Engineering from 2016-2017. From 1994 to 1998, she served as Associate Editor for the journals Ciência e Tecnologia de Alimentos (Food Science and Technology (Campinas)) and Boletim da SBCTA (News Letter from SBCTA, Braz. Soc. Food Sci. Tech.). She is the editor of the books: (1) Extracting Bioactive Compounds for Food Products: theory and application. Boca Raton, USA: CRC Press Taylor and Francis Group, 2009. v. 1, 466p and (2) Fundamentos de Engenharia de Alimentos (Food Engineering Fundamentals). São Paulo: Atheneu, 2013. v. 1, 815p. (coeditor: C. G. Pereira). She was the Guest Editor of special issues of The Journal of Supercritical Fluids and The Open Chemical Engineering Journal.

Research Area

Extraction,Antioxidant Activity,Food Chemistry,Chemical Engineering,Antioxidants, Phytochemicals,Food Science,Bioactivity,Medicinal Plants,Herbal Medicine Food Engineering Flavonoids,Compound Isolation,Natural Products,Biological Activities,Essential Oils, Phytochemical Purification, Phenolic Compounds, Nutraceuticals,Solubility Plant Extracts Soxhlet Extraction Extraction and Processing Industry Microencapsulation Supercritical Fluid Extraction Supercritical Fluids GC-FID Bioactive Compounds Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction of Natural Products Microwave Assisted Extraction Natural Drugs Volatile Oils Economic Engineering Cost of manufacturing superfluid extraction