Chemical Engineering & Technology, Vol.36, No.10, 1739-1748, 2013
A Standard Procedure for the Selection of Solvents for Natural Plant Extraction in the Early Stages of Process Development
The standard procedure for the selection of solvents for natural plant extraction is a hybrid approach of solubility estimation and experimental investigations to reduce the time of solvent screening to a minimum. The focus is on the selection of a suitable solvent for natural product extraction in the early stages of process development when thermodynamic data are not yet available and solid-liquid extraction is still an alternative to other techniques. The standard procedure is implemented in Microsoft (R) Excel, provides the necessary information, creates experimental test plans, performs calculations and supports the user by structured descriptions to select the most desirable solvent for extraction. In this study, its application to the natural products rebaudiosideA from Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni leaves, caffeine from guarana seeds, and artemisinin from Artemisia annua leaves is demonstrated. The standard procedure predicted solvents that were found in the literature, plus solvents with even better extraction performance than the ones described in the literature.