Optimization of ultrasound-assisted extraction of valuable compounds from fruit of Melia azedarach with glycerol-choline chloride deep eutectic solvent

Abstract

A green and cost-effective method was explored to extract phenolics, flavonoids, antioxidant, and iron chelating agents from fruits of medicinal tree Melia azedarach using natural deep eutectic solvent (NADES) and ultrasound treatment. NADES consisting of glycerol and choline chloride was prepared and used for extraction. Optimization of extraction was done as per response surface methodology using Box-Behnken design with three factors. The strategy proved successful with considerable extraction of total phenols, total flavonoids, radical scavengers, and iron chelators. Optimized conditions were found to be temperature (46.4 °C), ultrasound amplitude (100%; 130 Watt power) and DES concentration (50%) with predicted total phenols 9.154 mg Gallic acid equivalents/g dried weight (DW), total flavonoids 21.880 mg Rutin equivalents/g DW, iron chelating activity 33.254%, and anti-radical activity 51.166%. Validation experiments resulted in minimal errors (3.87–0.61%) that substantiated the proposed model. The model may be used in designing large scale extraction of phenolics and other antioxidant compounds from the fruit of M. azedarach using the green and low-cost glycerol-choline chloride NADES and ultrasound mediation.