10 - Extraction Techniques of Phenolic Compounds and Other Bioactive Compounds From Medicinal and Aromatic Plants

Abstract

Phenolic compounds are carbon-based phytochemicals that are present in many plants as secondary metabolites and, according to recent studies, they are supposed to have antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antiviral action as well as hypolipidemic and hypoglycemic effects. Nowadays, there are numerous extraction processes, which are widely used in order to extract those compounds from medicinal and aromatic plants. The most common methods that are reported in the literature are maceration, infusion, digestion, decoction, percolation, Soxhlet extraction, aqueous alcoholic extraction by fermentation, countercurrent extraction, ultrasound extraction, supercritical fluid extraction, and phytonics process. In order to select an appropriate extraction method, both chemical and economical parameters have to be taken into account in order to prove the suitability of the method. In this chapter, we aim to present an overview of those techniques that are widely used in order to extract phenolic compounds from medicinal and aromatic plants.