In this study, the spherical central composite design (Spherical CCD) was employed to determine the effect of conditions (temperature, solvent composition and extraction time) for extraction of total phenolics from Terminalia chebula fruits with water-EtOH and water-propylene glycol (PG) mixtures. Then the feasibility of sugaring-out concentration to concentrate the extracts was examined. Second order polynomial models on extraction yields of total phenolics as functions of extraction conditions were proposed and the models showed reasonable prediction of the experimental data with R-2 of 0.901 and 0.828 for water-EtOH and water-PG, respectively. When glucose was added to water-ethanol (EtOH) and water-propylene glycol (PG) extracts of T. chebula, the mixtures were separated into two phases: (1) the top phase rich in EtOH or PG, into which phenolic compounds were concentrated and (2) the glucose rich aqueous phase. The suitable glucose concentration to induce phase separation in both systems was 200 g/L. The distribution coefficients of total phenolics, gallic acid and ellagic acid in water-EtOH were 1.98, 4.89 and 3.52, respectively, while those for water-PG system were 1.98, 4.34 and 3.22, respectively. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.