Abstract
We investigated the impact of ultrasound at 20 kHz on olive leaves to understand how acoustic cavitation could increase polyphenol extraction. Application of ultrasound to whole leaf from 5 to 60 min enabled us to increase extraction from 6.96 to 48.75 µg eq. oleuropein/mL of extract. These results were correlated with Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy, allowing for leaf surface observation and optical microscopy of treated leaf cross sections to understand histochemical modifications. Our observations suggest that the effectiveness of ultrasound applied to extraction is highly dependent on plant structure and on how this material will react when subjected to acoustic cavitation. Ultrasound seems to impact the leaves by two mechanisms: cuticle erosion, and fragmentation of olive leaf surface protrusions (hairs), which are both polyphenol-rich structures.
Highlights
Green technologies such as ultrasound are being increasingly investigated, aiming both at process intensification and meeting the goals of sustainable processes [1,2,3]
This study aims to observe how ultrasound affects whole olive leaves from a histological point of view, and assess if those observations are correlated with polyphenol extraction
The effect of acoustic cavitation on extraction performances of phenolic compounds was assessed by submitting the leaves to increasing sonication durations (5 min, 15 min, and 60 min)
Summary
Green technologies such as ultrasound are being increasingly investigated, aiming both at process intensification and meeting the goals of sustainable processes [1,2,3]. Extraction of natural products (e.g., bioactive compounds such as essential oil, antioxidants, oil, and dyes) implies the recovery of compounds that are often of low occurrence in a plant matrix [4,5]. In this field, the understanding of solid–liquid extraction, and how green technologies can improve extraction, appear as key issues for an enhanced control of extraction. When submitted into a liquid, ultrasonic irradiation can induce the nucleation, growth, and collapse of bubbles filled with solvent vapor and dissolved gas [12] This phenomenon, known as acoustic cavitation, is at the origin of various physical and chemical effects due to the extreme local conditions obtained during the bubble collapse [13,14]. Ultrasound reduces extraction duration to 30 min instead of hours, and increases the yield by 5 to 30%, of monitored compounds compared with conventional extraction processes such as maceration
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