Affiliation:
1. Department of Analytical Chemistry, Medical University of Lublin, 20-093 Lublin, Poland
2. Department of Plant Physiology and Biophysics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, 20-033 Lublin, Poland
Abstract
Usnic acid (UA) is a compound with multiple biological activities that make it useful in various industries, e.g., pharmaceutical, cosmetic, dentistry, and agricultural sectors. Lichens are the primary source of UA, which is primarily extracted using acetone. This study aimed to investigate the solubility of UA in numerous natural deep eutectic solvents (NADESs) and use a mixture of thymol and camphor as a NADES in the optimization of the UA extraction process with the design of experiments method. For numerical optimization, the following parameters were employed in the experiment to confirm the model: a camphor-to-thymol ratio of 0.3, a liquid-to-solid ratio of 60, and a time of 30 min. The obtained experimental results aligned well with the predicted values, with the mean experimental value falling within the confidence interval, exhibiting deviations between 11.93 and 14.96. By employing this model, we were able to optimize the extraction procedure, facilitating the isolation of approximately 91% of the total UA content through a single extraction, whereas a single acetone extraction yielded only 78.4% of UA.
Subject
Chemistry (miscellaneous),Analytical Chemistry,Organic Chemistry,Physical and Theoretical Chemistry,Molecular Medicine,Drug Discovery,Pharmaceutical Science