Optimization of enzyme-assisted negative pressure cavitation extraction of five main indole alkaloids from Catharanthus roseus leaves and its pilot-scale application

In this paper, a novel and green enzyme-assisted negative pressure cavitation extraction (E-NPCE) of five main indole alkaloids vindoline (VDL), catharanthine (CTR), vincristine (VCR), vinblastine (VLB) and anhydravinblastine (AVLB) from Catharanthus roseus leaves was investigated. The incubation conditions were studied using Box-Behnken design (BBD) with response surface methodology (RSM), which revealed these as follows: enzyme amount 0.61% (CB&P, w/w of anhydration material), pH 4.73, incubation temperature 35.87 °C and time 8.62 h. Under the optimal conditions, the extraction yields of VDL, CTR, VCR, VLB and AVLB reached 4.940 ± 0.215, 6.283 ± 0.307, 0.049 ± 0.002, 0.066 ± 0.003 and 0.038 ± 0.001 mg/g, which represented an increase of 38.8%, 51.5%, 48.4%, 37.5% and 58.3%, compared to standard NPCE, respectively. Moreover, this extraction method was also applied on pilot-scale extraction and their yields were 4.761 ± 0.227, 6.093 ± 0.294, 0.047 ± 0.002, 0.064 ± 0.003 and 0.039 ± 0.001 mg/g, respectively. Thus, it demonstrated that E-NPCE could be an alternative method for natural compounds extraction and the most important thing is that this method can be applied to industrial produce.