Background: Ionic liquids (ILs) are considered as green solvents, and widely applied for the extraction of various compounds.
Methods: The present research focuses on the extraction of flavonoids from Apocynum venetum L. leaves by ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE). Several major influencing factors were optimized. Then, an aqueous biphasic system (ABS) was applied for further isolation of flavonoids.
Results: The flavonoids were mainly distributed in the top phase, while impurities were extracted to the bottom phase. The parameters influencing the extraction, namely type and concentration of salt, temperature, and pH, were studied in detail. Under optimized conditions (72.43% IL extract, 28.57% (NH4)2SO4, 25 °C temperature, pH 4.5), the preconcentration factor and extraction efficiency were found to be 3.78% and 93.35%, respectively.
Conclusions: This simple and efficient methodology is expected to see great use in the extraction and isolation of pharmaceutically active components from medicinal plant resources.
Keywords: aqueous biphasic system; flavonoids; ionic liquids; isolation; ultrasonic-assisted extraction.