New approach for extraction of charantin from Momordica charantia with pressurized liquid extraction

Pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) of anti-diabetic compound, charantin, from fruits of Momordica charantia (bitter melon) was proposed using ethyl alcohol. This is a more benign alternative for conventional Soxhlet extraction with chloroform or dichloromethane. Experiments were conducted to determine the effects of several factors of PLE including type of solvent (acetone, dichloromethane, ethanol, and water), solvent composition (0–100% ethanol in water), solvent flow rate (2–6 ml/min), and temperature (50–150 °C) on extraction efficiency. Prior to the quantitative analysis of charantin with high performance liquid chromatography, a purification step was required to remove interfering components such as chlorophylls and sugars from the analyte. The result from this study shows that acetone and ethanol led to higher efficiency than dichloromethane and water. In addition, the extraction efficiency was found to be highly influenced by temperature and solvent composition. When compared with Soxhlet extraction, PLE was shown to permit comparable extraction efficiency with 3.75-fold reduction in extraction time and 5-fold reduction in solvent consumption.