Abstract
Subcritical water refers to high-temperature and high-pressure water. A unique and useful characteristic of subcritical water is that its polarity can be dramatically decreased with increasing temperature. Therefore, subcritical water can behave similar to methanol or ethanol. This makes subcritical water a green extraction fluid used for a variety of organic species. This review focuses on the subcritical water extraction (SBWE) of natural products. The extracted materials include medicinal and seasoning herbs, vegetables, fruits, food by-products, algae, shrubs, tea leaves, grains, and seeds. A wide range of natural products such as alkaloids, carbohydrates, essential oil, flavonoids, glycosides, lignans, organic acids, polyphenolics, quinones, steroids, and terpenes have been extracted using subcritical water. Various SBWE systems and their advantages and drawbacks have also been discussed in this review. In addition, we have reviewed co-solvents including ethanol, methanol, salts, and ionic liquids used to assist SBWE. Other extraction techniques such as microwave and sonication combined with SBWE are also covered in this review. It is very clear that temperature has the most significant effect on SBWE efficiency, and thus, it can be optimized. The optimal temperature ranges from 130 to 240 °C for extracting the natural products mentioned above. This review can help readers learn more about the SBWE technology, especially for readers with an interest in the field of green extraction of natural products. The major advantage of SBWE of natural products is that water is nontoxic, and therefore, it is more suitable for the extraction of herbs, vegetables, and fruits. Another advantage is that no liquid waste disposal is required after SBWE. Compared with organic solvents, subcritical water not only has advantages in ecology, economy, and safety, but also its density, ion product, and dielectric constant can be adjusted by temperature. These tunable properties allow subcritical water to carry out class selective extractions such as extracting polar compounds at lower temperatures and less polar ingredients at higher temperatures. SBWE can mimic the traditional herbal decoction for preparing herbal medication and with higher extraction efficiency. Since SBWE employs high-temperature and high-pressure, great caution is needed for safe operation. Another challenge for application of SBWE is potential organic degradation under high temperature conditions. We highly recommend conducting analyte stability checks when carrying out SBWE. For analytes with poor SBWE efficiency, a small number of organic modifiers such as ethanol, surfactants, or ionic liquids may be added.
Highlights
Introduction distributed under the terms andFor thousands of years, herbal medicine has played a vital role in treating diseases, especially in East Asia
Since various research has focused on the extraction of flavonoids, carbohydrates, glycosides, organic acids, polyphenolics, alkaloids, essential oils, quinones, terpenes, lignans, and steroids [11,12], we provide a systematic and comprehensive overview on subcritical water extraction (SBWE) conditions, the function and activities of the active ingredients and the subcritical extracts, analysis methods, and co Mparison with other extraction methods for the above-mentioned natural products
Extraction temperatures (100, 125, 150, and 175 ◦ C), mean particle sizes (0.25, 0.50, and 1 mm), and water flow rates (1, 2, and 4 mL/min) were investigated by Eikani et al Separation and identification of the components were carried out by gas chromatography (GC)-FID and GC-MS. They concluded that hydro distillation and Soxhlet extraction showed higher extraction efficiency, but the SBWE resulted in the essential oils more being concentrated in valuable oxygenated components
Summary
Herbal medicine has played a vital role in treating diseases, especially in East Asia. In the actual extraction processes, since pressure has minimal influence on the dielectric constant of water, water’s temperature is adjusted to control the dielectric constant of water in order to mimic various organic solvents This unique characteristic of subcritical water allows water as the sole extraction fluid without any co-solvents such as acids, alkalis, catalysts, or organic solvents; this meets the principles of green chemical extraction since water is nontoxic. (3) hydrolysis, degradation, polymerization, and synthesis reactions using subcritical water as both a solvent or a reactant [7]; (4) environmental remediation such as cleaning contaminated sewages and soils, decomposing pollutants (pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and polychlorinated biphenyls) and explosives [8]; (5) extraction of active ingredients from medicinal and seasoning herbs, vegetables, fruits, and other plant related matrices [4,9]. Separation, identification, and quantification of each natural product compound in the subcritical water extracts are achieved by liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, infrared spectrum, and/or mass spectrometry
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