Sustainable Mechanochemical-Assisted Extraction of Active Saponins from Plants with Solid Acid and Alkalis
Linhong Fan, Wenxiang Fan, Qian Zhang, Longchan Liu, Ziying Wang, Ziying Wang, Yuqi Mei, Linnan Li, Zhengtao Wang, Zhengtao Wang, Li Yang
Abstract
Saponins, as a kind of glycoside with abundant activity, exist in large quantities in plants. With the development of green chemistry and simpler cost-effective processes, a sustainable mechanochemical-assisted extraction (MCAE) method with edible solid acid and alkalis was developed for eco-friendly extraction of four saponins from Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer (ginseng). The factors influencing MCAE efficiency were optimized by single-factor experiments and the response surface methodology. The optimal MCAE process for saponins was to mill ginseng with malic acid (195.00 mg/g) and sodium carbonate (100.00 mg/g) for 6 min and extract with 28 mL of water per 1 g of ginseng powder for 5 min. Additionally, scanning electron microscopy, particle size analyzer, Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, X-ray diffraction, and mass spectrometry have demonstrated the possible extraction mechanism and effectiveness of the mechanochemical composites. Furthermore, the greenness profile was evaluated by the CHEM21 Toolkit, Analytical Eco-scale, Green Analytical Procedure Index (GAPI), and Analytical GREEnness (AGREEprep) metric, which demonstrated that this research provides a green, safe, and efficient saponin extraction method and shows the potential of the MCAE in green sustainable extraction of bioactive compounds from natural products.