The efficiency of supercritical carbon dioxide for the selective removal of the more important pesticides from commercial lanoline was studied. Lanoline solubility values from 0.03 to 2.50 mg/g CO2 were obtained, corresponding to CO2 densities from 498.4 to 857.3 kg/m(3), respectively. The original lanoline showed the following pesticide profile: diazinon 66 ppm, methyl-pirimifos 4.6 ppm and ethion 140 ppm. By an extraction carried out at 25 MPa and 45 degrees C, using a mass ratio solvent to substrate of 19.5 g CO2/mg lanoline, only 3.4% of lanoline was co-extracted and the pesticide concentrations were reduced to 0.47 ppm for diazinon, less than 20 ppb for methyl-pirimifos and 0.2 ppm for ethion. These results shows that supercritical CO2 is a very convenient solvent for the selective extraction of the main pesticides from lanoline, without the occurrence of substantial lanoline losses during the process. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.