Introducing green technology for extraction of medicinal and aromatic plants to Egypt

With the increasing demand for herbal medicinal products, nutraceuticals, and natural products for health care all over the world, medicinal plant extract manufacturers and essential oil producers all over the world have started using the most appropriate extraction technologies in order to produce extracts and essential oils of defined quality with the least variations from batch to batch. It has become absolutely necessary to disseminate such innovated technology to emerging and developing countries for the best industrial utilization. Microwave and Ultrasound assisted extractions have been recently introduced to Phytochemistry Department, National Research Centre, Egypt. Optimization of extraction methods of economically important medicinal plants such as Cynara scolymus and Silybum marianum was carried out. HPLC demonstrated that total silymarin content extracted from Silybum marianum L. has been increased by using microwaves compared with traditional extraction method (0.43, 0.36%; respectively) with higher Silybinin A and Silybinin B contents (8.7, 2.3% for silibinin A and 16.6, 5.2% for silibinin B). For Cynara scolymus L., the total extraction yields were 17, 30 and 20% for traditional, microwave and ultrasonication methods; respectively. Chlorogenic acid content was determined by RP-HPLC. Much higher yield of chlorogenic acid was obtained by using microwaves and ultrasound assisted extraction compared with the classical method (50.607, 50.761 and 18.020%; respectively).

Acknowledgement:

This work is a part of a project financially supported by Science and Technology Development Fund (STDF)

References:

[1] Extraction Technologies for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the International Centre for Science and High Technology, 2008.

[2] Saleh N. A. M., Global Phytochemistry: the Egyptian Experience, Phytochemistry, 63, 239 – 241, 2003.