Experimental mixture design as a tool to evaluate coumarin (1,2-benzopyrone) extraction from Dipteryx odorata seeds

Experimental mixture design was drawn to evaluated the effects of the interactions between water, methanol and ethyl acetate mixtures on the extraction efficiency of coumarin (1,2-benzopyrone) from Dipteryx odorata seeds. Solvents were defined considering those preferred as green solvents for natural products extraction. Ultrasonic-assisted extraction method developed was simple, fast, low cost and highly selective. Analyses were performed by reversed-phase liquid chromatography using acetonitrile/water (40:60 v/v) as mobile phase, a C18 column, and a diode-array detector at 274 nm. Results were evaluated in linear, quadratic, special cubic, and full cubic models. The Full cubic model showed the best extraction results with a total error of 3.67%. The optimal extraction point was obtained using 15% water, 20% methanol, and 65% ethyl acetate (v/v). Based on the Guide for the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurements and Monte Carlo simulations, the uncertainty expression presented deviations of 1.18 and 1.64, respectively, showing the reliability of the analytical method. D. odorata seeds are popularly used in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic applications due to high content of coumarins. However, the yield of coumarins extraction depends on the proper choice of the extraction method and solvents. The ternary mixture was optimized and resulted in 3.82% coumarin (weight/seed), which, compared to literature, showed a good increase over that obtained using common solvents, without considering the mathematical modeling.