Ojito, Eduardo (Prof.)Abdulkerim, Oumer2020-01-292023-11-102020-01-292023-11-102018-10-13http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/20522This research paper studied the development of an optimized process for the soxhlet extraction of capsaicin from chili pepper (Capsicum Annum), collected from local market. Experiments had performed to get maximum yield by utilization of ethanol as a solvent. Experimentation covered three factorials to evaluate significance among temperature, solvent concentration and time. The extraction temperature was varied as 85℃, 90℃, and 95℃, the solvent concentration was 79v/v, 89v/v and 99v/v and the extraction time was varied as 3hr, 4hr, and 5hr respectively. The yield of capsaicinoid was response variables. ANOVA was applied to find significance among variables and predict optimum conditions through a regression model, P-value obtained from the model was less than 0.0001, which implies that it is highly significant. The process parameters investigated in this study have a significance effect on the yield. Reduced particle sizes produced a higher yield of capsaicinoid as long as agglomeration in the extractor did not occur. The maximum yield obtained was 16.57% at a temperature of 90℃, and extraction time of 4hr and solvent concentration was 89% ethanol. The product obtained was researched for its physiochemical properties indicated that the refractive index was 1.4967, the moisture and volatile matter was 3.5%, the density was 990Kg/m , the specific gravity was 1.01, and the kinematic viscosity was 3.43*10 3 2 m −6 . Process simulation in Aspen Plus TM s was carried out to evaluated independent variables and to perform sensitivity analysis. The extraction process was modeled and simulated using Aspen Plus . The result from the simulation indicated models more or less better than the experiment process.en-USChili pepperSolvent extractionSimulationCharacterizationThesis