Vesicle based ultrasonic-assisted extraction of saponins in Panax notoginseng

A simple and effective vesicle based ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) method was developed for extraction of active compounds in functional food. The target analytes were determined by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detector. Surfactant vesicle was adopted as extraction solvent. Different operating conditions including the type and concentration of vesicle, extraction time and solid to liquid ratio were investigated by single-factor experiments and response surface methodology. Optimized experimental conditions were 1% (w/v) of DTAB/SDS vesicle, 20 min of extraction time and 160 mg/mL of solid to liquid ratio. The proposed method provided good linearity in the linear range of 10-1000 μg/mL with regression coefficients larger than 0.999, low limits of detection of 27.64-55.67 ng/mL, good precision with relative standard deviations below 0.35%, and satisfactory recoveries of 83.84-90.92% for tested saponins. Consequently, the proposed vesicle based UAE method was well suited for the extraction of saponins in Panax notoginseng.