Abstract
In this review, recent advances in the methods of pre-treatment of plant material for the extraction of secondary metabolites with high biological activity are presented. The correct preparation of the material for extraction is as important as the selection of the extraction method. This step should prevent the degradation of bioactive compounds as well as the development of fungi and bacteria. Currently, the methods of preparation are expected to modify the particles of the plant material in such a way that will contribute to the release of bioactive compounds loosely bonded to cell wall polymers. This review presents a wide range of methods of preparing plant material, including drying, freeze-drying, convection drying, microwave vacuum drying, enzymatic processes, and fermentation. The influence of the particular methods on the structure of plant material particles, the level of preserved bioactive compounds, and the possibility of their release during the extraction were highlighted. The plant material pre-treatment techniques used were discussed with respect to the amount of compounds released during extraction as well their application in various industries interested in products with a high content of biologically active compounds, such as the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and food industries.
Highlights
The step of sample preparation for extraction and chromatographic analysis has attracted the attention of researchers, analysts, and companies producing analytical equipment for almost two decades
We focused on conventional methods such as convection drying, microwave vacuum drying, and freeze-drying, as well as paying attention to the increasingly used modern methods: fermentation and enzymatic hydrolysis
The pre-treatment of plant material is crucial for the extraction of bioactive compounds
Summary
The step of sample preparation for extraction and chromatographic analysis has attracted the attention of researchers, analysts, and companies producing analytical equipment for almost two decades. Regardless of whether the raw material was initially pre-treated, its quality will be influenced by many other factors including the way the plant was grown, the place where it was grown, weather conditions, the method of drying the biomass, temperature, the final water content of the raw material, and its storage temperature. All of these factors will influence the final chemical composition of the biomass [7,8]. Most of the presented works refer to a laboratory scale but their effectiveness should lead to the transfer of the presented ideas to an industrial scale
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