It is expected that water saturated with benzene will be more likely to extract pigments much more efficiently that water alone since the presence of both benzene and water in a mixture allows an extraction of a broader spectrum of pigment compounds which include water insoluble organic pigments and water soluble pigments. On the other hand, water alone has the ability to extract only water soluble organic pigments.
Please, be careful using benzene since it is reported that this solvent is carcinogenic.
For more information on the extraction of pigment using different solvents, please use the following link:
According to me water saturated with benzene could give more pigment extraction. It is based on the adsorption of interfering pigments on benzene molecules.
It depends on the type of pigment, the non polar compounds areextracted better with non polar solvent e.g. benzene, Hexane, chloroform. More polar pigments are isolated better with polar solvent e.g. mixture of benzene water with different ratio