Efficient Extraction of Anti-Inflammatory Active Ingredients from <i>Schefflera octophylla</i> Leaves Using Ionic Liquid-Based Ultrasonic-Assisted Extraction Coupled with HPLC

• Main Authors: Xuqiang Liu, Yun Niu, Jieqing Liu, Mengjun Shi, Ruian Xu, Wenyi Kang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-08-01
• Series: Molecules
• Subjects: <i>Schefflera octophylla</i> (Lour.) Harms; ionic liquid; response surface method
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/24/16/2942

<i>Schefflera octophylla</i> (Lour.) Harms, a kind of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), is commonly used for anti-inflammatory, analgesic, rheumatism, fever, and hemostasis therapy. In our previous studies, two major triterpenoids were isolated and identified from leaves of <i>S. octophylla</i>, and evaluated for their inhibitory effects on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitric oxide production in RAW264.7 cells; both of them displayed significant anti-inflammatory activities at their noncytotoxic concentrations. Therefore, it is very useful to establish an efficient and green extraction method to isolated the two major triterpenoids from leaves of <i>S. octophylla</i>. In this paper, ionic liquid based ultrasonic-assisted extraction (ILUAE) was successfully applied to extract the two major triterpenoids from leaves of <i>S. octophylla</i>. Four single factors (ionic liquids (ILs) concentration, solid&#8722;liquid ratio, centrifugal speed, mesh number), with a greater impact on extraction rate, were selected from a variety of influencing factors, and the optimal conditions were obtained by Box&#8722;Behnken response surface methodology (RSM). Under optimal conditions, the total extraction yield and extraction rate of two triterpenoids were 288.03 mg/g and 28.80%, respectively, which was 6.80% higher than that of 70% Ethanol (220 mg/g and 22%, respectively).