Alzate Tamayo, Luz MaríaVélez Argumedo, Catalina MaríaJaramillo Garcés, YamileGil Garzón, Maritza AndreaArteaga González, Diana MaríaMillán Cardona, Leonidas de Jesús2012-07-172012-07-172012-07-171909-0455http://hdl.handle.net/10567/549Introduction. Carob (Hymenaea courbaril Linneaus) is a plant known because of its several antifungal, molluscicide, nutritional and protective properties, all of which can be applied in food industries. Objective. This research work is made extracting the bioactive components of carob seeds, by the use of Soxhlet with polar and non- polar solvents and supercritical fluids with carbon dioxide (FSC-CO2), to evaluate its antimicrobial properties on Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and determine the performance of every extraction. Materials and methods. The carob seeds were smashed and characterized before the respective tests. Then, the performances of the inhibitory component extracted were compared. The extraction was made by the use of two methods: Soxhlet and supercritical fluids, to determine the antimicrobial action spectrum at different concentrations (%v/v) (100%, 50%, 10%).To study the data obtained, the one way variance analysis method (ANOVA) was used for the performance response variable (%) and the two ways method for the microbiological analysis variable. Results. The performance analysis (%) had significant differences (p<0.05) between each extract obtained for the microbiological analysis (length of inhibition halo in cm). The same happened (p<0.05) between extracts and for the concentrations evaluated. Conclusion. The bioactive compounds of the carob seed have an antimicrobial activity on E. Coli. These compounds are soluble in ethanol and their performance is optimized by a previous extraction by the use of a cleaner production technology, like FSC-CO2.esAlgarrobo (hymenaea courbaril linneaus)Corporación Universitaria LasallistaÁrea Metropolitana del Valle de AburráFluido supercríticoAditivos (alimentos)Componentes bio-activosExtractor soxhletIndustria alimenticiaArticle