Optimization of extraction of evodiamine and rutaecarpine from fruit of Evodia rutaecarpa using modified supercritical CO2

Evodiamine and rutaecarpine have been intensively studied due to their pharmacological actions and clinical applications. In this report, supercritical fluid was used to extract evodiamine and rutaecarpine from the unripe fruit of Evodia rutaecarpa. Response surface methodology using Box–Behnken experimental design was utilized to optimize parameters for supercritical carbon dioxide extraction with methanol as co-solvent. The effect of various values of dynamic extraction time (30–90 min), temperature (50–70 °C) and pressure (200–400 bar) on extraction yields of the two compounds was evaluated. Determinations of the extracts were performed by high-performance liquid chromatography. The experimental data obtained were fitted to second-order polynomial equations and analyzed by analysis of variance. The highest yields predicted were 1.217 mg/g for evodiamine and 0.969 mg/g for rutaecarpine at the optimal values (time 78 min, temperature 62 °C, pressure 280 bar and co-solvent flow rate 0.4 mL/min), based on the selected range of experimental conditions.