Ultra-turrax based ultrasound-assisted extraction of five organic acids from honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica Thunb.) and optimization of extraction process

• Ultra-turrax based ultrasound-assisted extraction (UT-UAE) method was developed.
• Efficient and fast UT-UAE of organic acids from honeysuckle was investigated.
• UT-UAE with high extraction efficiency could be applied in industrial production.

In the present study, a highly effective extraction method, namely ultra-turrax based ultrasound-assisted extraction (UT-UAE), was firstly designed to extract the main organic acids from honeysuckle. Single factor experiments and Box-Behnken design (BBD) were conducted to optimize the extraction process. The optimal extraction conditions were as follows: homogeneous rate 8000 rpm, ultrasonic intensity 0.347 W/cm2, ethanol concentration 65%, time 10 min and liquid/solid ratio 20:1 mL/g. Moreover, the mass transfer kinetics and particle size distribution were investigated in order to demonstrate the advantages of UT-UAE. Through the comparison with ultra-turrax extraction (UTE) and ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) methods, the proposed method exhibited higher yields of five target organic acids in a shorter time. The results showed that UT-UAE could be a promising method for fast extracting active compounds from plants.

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