DefinePK

Abstract

Microwave assisted extraction is a modern and new approach for rapid and efficient extraction of plant material which are rich in number of secondary metabolites of prime importance. In present study a comparison was made between conventional method of extraction i.e., Soxhlet extraction, and modern method of extraction i.e., Microwave assisted extraction for the rapid and efficient extraction of Cassia occidentalis L. bark. Microwave assisted extraction was proved to be more rapid and more efficient for extraction of bark of Cassia occidentalis which yielded 190mg of extract/ 1g of bark powder in 70 seconds of microwave irradiation of 700W as compared to 160mg of extract/30g or 5.33mg of extract per gram of bark powder in 15 hours of continuous heating of the soxhlet extraction. It was also observed that a maximum of 170.87μg equivalent of Gallic acid of phenolics were obtained from extract of Microwave heating (900W) for 30 seconds while 177 μg equivalent of Catechin of flavonoids were obtained from a microwave assisted extract at 70 seconds of 900W of irradiation. In contrast, soxhlet extraction produced only 96.75 μg equivalent of Gallic acid and 120μg equivalent of Catechin after 15 and 10 hours of extraction respectively. Furthermore higher amount of alkaloids were obtained from microwave assisted extraction (3.2 mg eq of Dragondroff reagent). So it was proved that microwave assisted extraction was efficient as well as cost effective in terms of lesser use of energy, time and solvent.
Keywords: Microwave assisted extraction; Cassia occidentalis; Bark; Phenolics; Flavonoids; Microwaves
http://dx.doi.org/10.19045/bspab.2016.50007