Application of a subcritical water extraction technique for enhancing extraction of bioactive compounds from propolis

Abstract

Abstract The bioactive compounds and antioxidant activities of propolis extracts were investigated using subcritical water extraction (SWE). SWE was performed by varying 1extraction temperature (110–200°C) and time (10–30 min). SWE using only water as the solvent successfully to extracted bioactive compounds from propolis using high-purity glass thimbles. The concentrations of galangin (16.37 ± 0.61 mg/g), and chrysin (7.66 ± 0.64 mg/g) from propolis were maximal at 200°C for 20 min, and 170°C for 20 min, respectively. The maximum yields of the total phenolics (226.37 ± 4.37 mg/g), flavonoids (70.28 ± 1.33 mg/g), and antioxidant activities (88.73 ± 0.58%, 98.86 ± 0.69%, and 858.89 ± 11.48 mg/g) were obtained at 200°C for 20 min. Compared with using conventional ethanol extraction (at 25°C for 24 h), all yields of SWE extracts obtained at 200°C for 20 min were higher. These results indicated that SWE is a much faster and more efficient method for extracting bioactive compounds from propolis.