Investigation of the yield of biologically active substances during the ultrasound and electro-discharge extraction of medicinal herbs of the foothills of the North Caucasus

Abstract

Biologically active components are present in plants in small quantities. There are many different extraction methods, which can be used for their extraction. In this scientific work, extracts of three plants (common origanum, peppermint and garden sage) were prepared in three different ways: water extraction, ultrasound extraction and electro-discharge extraction. The dynamics of saturation of extracts with flavonoids, essential oils and organic acids for each case were studied within 48 hours after the experiment's start. The conducted studies have confirmed the effectiveness of electro-discharge extraction in comparison with ultrasound and in comparison with water extraction. Forty-eight hours after the start of the experiment, 7-15% more organic acids, flavonoids and essential oils were observed in extracts of the studied plants obtained after electro-discharge treatment than in water extracts. A similar dynamic can be traced in the assessment of all indicators. At the same time, 80% readiness of extracts in the case of electro-discharge treatment was observed already 30 minutes after the start of the experiment. Similar indicators (80% of the maximum) were achieved after 24 hours of water extraction and after 2 hours with ultrasound treatment. Thus, the electro-discharge treatment allows you to obtain higher-quality and more enriched active substance extracts in a much shorter time. At the same time, electro-discharge treatment has a significant list of disadvantages described in detail in this article.