Extractions and Purification of Nuciferine from Lotus Leaves

Abstract

Four kinds of extraction methods such as Acid-Ethanol Extraction (AEE), Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction (UAE), Microwave-Assisted Extraction (MAE) and Enzyme-Assisted Extraction (EAE) were used to extract Nuciferine from lotus leaves. The crude Nuciferine was further purified by re-crystallization. Results showed that compared with AEE, MAE and EAE, UAE exhibited highest extraction ratio (97.05%) with the irradiation power of 400 W at 50°C for 30 min, which indicates UAE is an efficient, rapid and simple Nuciferine extraction technique. The mixed solvent of acetone, petroleum ether, methanol and acetonitrile rather than single solvent was shown to be the most effective for re-crystallization of Nuciferine while stirring (600 rpm) at a storage temperature of 10°C for 24 h, resulting in higher purity (96.85%) and yield (94.7%). The purity of Nuciferine was increased from an average of 53.19% of the crude product to an average of 96.85% of purified product that were detected by the HPLC analysis. So, UAF combined with re-crystallization can be applied to extraction and purification of Nuciferine to improve its industrial mass production and increase greatly economic additional value.