An extraction method based on a multivariate analytical approach was developed for enhancement of the phenolic compounds in cashew nut extracts. The different extractor solvents (acetone, water, ethanol, and methanol) and their binary, ternary, and quaternary combinations were evaluated using a simplex-centroid design and surface response methodology. The special cubic model exhibits no lack of fit and explains 89.2% of the variance. The total phenolic measurements by the Folin-Ciocalteu method revealed the highest values for ethanol (5.93 mg GAE g-1) and acetone-methanol-ethanol ternary mixture (5.92 mg GAE g-1) extracts. ESI (-)-Q/TOFMS analyses combined with PCA and HCA revealed the presence of fatty acids, phospholipids, and sugars in the ternary mixture cashew extract, while for the ethanol extract only phenolic compounds, such as anacardic acids and derivatives, were found. The proposed approach was adequate to reach the optimal extractor which ethanol, a low-toxicity solvent, enabled the selective extraction of a high content of phenolic compounds from cashew nuts.
