Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) play important roles in the extraction of active constituents in traditional Chinese medicine. Ultrasound-assisted DES has been used to extract flavonoids from Scutellaria baicalensis . Using the contents of scutellarin, baicalin, baicalein, wogonoside, wogonin, and oroxylin A as quantitative indices, different kinds of DESs have been optimized for extraction and betaine/acetic acid has shown the highest yield. The Box–Behnken response surface method (RSM) was utilized to select the extraction conditions with the highest yields. The optimal extraction conditions were as follows: the molar ratio of betaine/acetic acid was 1:4, the water content was 40%, the solid/liquid ratio was 1:100 g/mL, the extraction temperature was 52 °C, and the extraction time was 23 min. Compared with traditional reflux extraction using 70% ethanol as the solvent, ultrasound-assisted DES has a shorter extraction time and higher yields. Furthermore, anti-inflammatory activities of the two extracts by ultrasound-assisted DES and reflux were compared using RAW264.7 cells and the methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) method, and they showed equal anti-inflammatory activities. The results demonstrated that the ultrasound-assisted DES method for extraction of flavonoids from scutellariae radix is simple, green, efficient, and reproducible. This research provides good method guides for the rapid and efficient extraction of flavonoids from natural sources.

Hydrophilic molecularly imprinted polymers (H-MIP) with molecular recognition ability for iridoid glycosides (IGs) have been obtained via bulk polymerization combined with hydrolysis of ester groups. H-MIP were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The hydrophilcity was measured by the contact angle measurement and the water dispersion stability. The obtained H-MIP demonstrated high selectivity and specific binding ability to five IGs in aqueous media. The group extraction efficiency of molecular imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) for five IGs was investigated, including loading sample, breakthrough volume, washing solvent, and elution solvent. Compared with non-imprinted solid-phase extraction (NISPE), the higher average recovery (95.5 %) of five IGs with lower relative standard deviations values (below 6.1 %) using MISPE combined with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were achieved at three spiked levels in three blank samples. Under the optimum MISPE conditions, the wide linear range with the correlation coefficient of R (2)  ≥ 0.9950 for five IGs with low limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) (0.01-0.08 and 0.03-0.27 μg mL(-1), respectively) were obtained. Chromatograms obtained using MISPE columns demonstrated that the matrix interference has been minimized and great interferences around IGs were also eliminated efficiently. These results indicated that the developed MISPE-HPLC method was selective, accurate, and applicable for the determination of IGs in water media. Graphical Abstract Preparation of hydrophilic molecularly imprinted polymers via bulk polymerization combined with hydrolysis of ester groups.

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