Extraction of phenolic principles: value addition through effective sample pretreatment and operational improvement.

Edible plants generally green leafy vegetables contain bioactive Phenolics and antioxidant principles which are important in maintaining the oxidative balance of the human body and are used widely as dietary supplements. Optimal extraction of such principles is the need of the hour for the nutraceutical industries. The work presents three innovative sample pretreatment such as providing additional heat to the thimble, use of microwave pretreated sample and pretreatment with acoustic waves. These modifications are intended to improve the working efficiency and output of traditional Soxhlet extraction and make it at par with modern extraction techniques. Extraction of plant phenolics/flavonoids from edible leaves of Amaranthus viridis Linn (Amaranthaceae) and their subsequent HPTLC mapping was used as the performance indicator. Check of nutraceutical and biological integrity upon application of such pretreatment methods was performed. SEM analysis was carried out to get a true inside of the exctraction events occurring internally. Such findings can be helpful for small scale industries who cannot afford costlier modern extraction methods. Four assumptions have been proposed which can be a critical in impriving any extraction method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]