A framework for solvent selection based on herbal extraction process design

Abstract

In the extraction of Malaysian herbs phytochemical, the uses of solvents are very important as a transfer medium. Most of the current studies are only focusing on the effect of using different solvent types, different solvent to herbs ratio, effect of phytochemicals to the scavenging activity, antioxidant property and so on. There are very limited literatures on solvent blended design methods for phytochemicals extraction from herbs. Practically, different solvent can only extract certain phytochemicals that have the same number of partition coefficient. In this study, both solvents and phytochemicals properties are concerned in order to design a blended solvent that can enhance the extraction process and extract the optimum amount of phytochemicals from herbs. In addition, the safety, economic and environmental aspects of the solvent are also considered. The main objective of this work is to design solvent blends for the extraction of herbal phytochemicals using computer-aided approach. The methodology is divided into four tasks which are Task (I): Problem definition, Task (II): Property model identification, Task (III): Design solvent blend and Task (IV): Model based verification. In this paper, only Task (I) up to Task (III) is illustrated for calculation. Task (IV) will be presented in future paper. This proposed method has been applied to design a solvent mixture for the extraction of Kaempferol from Kacip Fatimah herb as a case study. From the analysis, 17 feasible binary solvents mixture have been identified suitable for the extraction as it was within range of the design target.