Fast environment-friendly ball mill-assisted deep eutectic solvent-based extraction of natural products

Area of Science:

• Natural Product Chemistry
• Green Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry

Background:

• Traditional extraction methods for plant natural products often involve harsh chemicals and energy-intensive processes.
• Developing environmentally friendly and efficient extraction techniques is crucial for sustainable natural product isolation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a novel ball mill-assisted deep eutectic solvent-based extraction method.
• To assess the efficiency of this method for extracting tanshinones from Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge.
• To compare the developed method with conventional extraction techniques.

Main Methods:

• Ball mill-assisted deep eutectic solvent-based extraction was employed.
• Tanshinones (cryptotanshinone, tanshinone I, tanshinone II A) were targeted for extraction.
• Optimization of experimental conditions was performed.

Main Results:

• The developed method demonstrated high efficiency in extracting cryptotanshinone (0.176 mg/g), tanshinone I (0.181 mg/g), and tanshinone II A (0.421 mg/g).
• The method proved greener, more efficient, and faster than methanol-based ultrasound-assisted extraction and heat reflux extraction.
• Excellent analytical performance was achieved, with recovery (96.1-103.9%), reproducibility (1.6-1.9% RSD), and high correlation of determination (r(2) 0.9973-0.9984).

Conclusions:

• Ball mill-assisted deep eutectic solvent-based extraction is a superior alternative for natural product extraction.
• This innovative approach offers significant advantages in terms of speed, efficiency, and environmental impact.
• The method has the potential to revolutionize future natural product extraction methodologies.