Pearl powder is a biologically active substance that is widely used in traditional medicine, skin repair and maintenance. The traditional industrial extraction processes of pearl powder are mainly based on water, acid or enzyme extraction methods, all of which have their own drawbacks. In this study, we propose a new extraction process for these active ingredients, specifically, water-soluble components of pearl powder extracted by a CO2 supercritical extraction system (SFE), followed by the extraction efficiency evaluation. A wound-healing activity was evaluated in vitro and in vivo. This demonstrated that the supercritical extraction technique showed high efficiency as measured by the total protein percentage. The extracts exhibited cell proliferation and migration-promoting activity, in addition to improving collagen formation and healing efficiency in vivo. In brief, this study proposes a novel extraction process for pearl powder, and the extracts were also explored for wound-healing bioactivity, demonstrating the potential in wound healing.
Keywords: CO2 supercritical extraction system; pearl powder extract; wound healing.