Extraction and enrichment of natural pigments from solid samples using ionic liquids and chitosan nanoparticles

• UAE-DMSPE extraction using ILs and CSNPs was developed for enrichment of pigments.
• The proposed method involves the use of UHPLC coupled with UV and Q-TOF/MS.
• Different parameters affecting the extraction efficiency were optimized.
• The method was applied to a determination of turmeric and rhubarb samples.

A green and economical method for the extraction and preconcentration of natural pigments (curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin) was developed using ultrasound-assisted extraction combined with dispersive micro solid-phase extraction. In this work, Ionic liquids (ILs) were used for the pre-extraction of natural pigments. The pure chitosan nanoparticles (CS NPs) were then used as a sorbent for the microextraction mode. The method involves the use of ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry. Operating parameters influencing the performance of extraction steps such as type and concentration of ILs, concentration of CS NPs, type of elution solvent, agitation time and pH of sample-extracting solution were investigated. Under the optimum conditions, the proposed method exhibited a low detection limit in the range of 0.11–0.36 ng/mL at S/N = 3, and good linearities with coefficients of determination (R2) higher than 0.9990. The recoveries of turmeric samples were ranging from 90.45% to 105.04% for the three studied curcuminoids with SD of 3.27–6.58. The experimental results indicated that the ILs and CS NPs were the promising materials for the extraction and enrichment of target curcuminoids from complex solid samples.