An efficient ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) method was developed for simultaneous extraction of three active compounds, forsythiaside A (FSA), phillyrin (PHI) and rutin (RT), from the fruits of Forsythia suspensa. The effects of various factors including a binary mixed solvent of methanol/water and ethanol/water, the pH of the solvent, particle size, temperature, solvent to material ratio, ultrasonic input power and extraction time on UAE were investigated in detail. The mass transfer mechanism of UAE using different mixed solvents was further explained by comparison with the maceration extraction method. The response surface methodology was used to optimize the experimental variables including ethanol concentration, solvent to material ratio and extraction time. The optimized conditions for the simultaneous extraction of RT, FSA and PHI were: particle size 60⁻80 mesh, temperature 30 °C, ultrasonic power 200 W, ethanol concentration 50%, solvent to material ratio 32 mL/g and extraction time 37 min. Compared to conventional extraction methods, UAE provided the highest extraction efficiency and offered many advantages including the reduction of solvent, temperature and time for extraction.
Keywords: Forsythia suspensa; active compounds; response surface methodology; ultrasonic-assisted extraction.