Application of Polyethylene/Polypropylene Glycol Ethers of Fatty Alcohols for Micelle‐Mediated Extraction of Calendula anthodium

Abstract

Classical extraction methods used for the isolation of active substances from the plant materials are expensive, complicated, and often environmentally unfriendly. The ultrasonic assisted micelle‐mediated extraction (UAMME) method seems to be an interesting alternative. In this study, Calendula anthodium UAMME extract composition and antioxidant properties were examined. Several nonionic surfactants, from the group of ethoxy/propoxylated fatty alcohols, were applied in the extraction process. The results were compared with water and water‐ethanoic extracts of marigold flowers. Bioflavonoid compositions of the extracts were determined using ultra‐performance liquid chromatography–diode‐array detector–mass spectrometry (UPLC‐DAD‐MS). Their antioxidant properties were evaluated using free radical‐scavenging activity (2,2‐Diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl, DPPH) measurement and Follin's method. Additionally, the structure of the selected flavonoids solubilized in the micelle solution was theoretically simulated using molecular dynamics (MD). The results confirmed that the UAMME method might be an alternative method for the sourcing of the plant extracts rich in natural antioxidants. The results indicated that UAMME extracts showed 19–37% higher DPPH radical inhibition than aqueous extracts. Furthermore, the selection of a suitable surfactant may thus provide the expected composition of the extract. Due to the use as eluents in UAMME, safe raw materials, the obtained marigold flower extracts can be applied as components in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical products.

Influence of Terpene Type on the Release from an O/W Nanoemulsion: Experimental and Theoretical Studies

“…The simulations were performed in triplicate, and the final results are the arithmetic average of the set of results, while the structures are the result of clustering. Previously, this methodology was successfully applied to study the incorporation of flavonoids into non-ionic surfactant micelles [50,51].…”

The Accumulated Effect of the Number of Ethylene Oxide Units and/or Carbon Chain Length in Surfactants Structure on the Nano-Micellar Extraction of Flavonoids

“…It was concluded that the polyphenol content decreases with the decreasing number of PEG/PPG groups in the surfactant structure. In the case of the antioxidant activity and the flavonoid content, there was no such relationship [5]. Since the dependence of the UAMME extraction yield on the surfactant structure has not yet been clearly explained, for further studies, we selected compounds with different carbon chain lengths but the same polyether group (two subsets: O20, S20, CS20 and CS12, T12, LT12 in Table 2) and with a diverse number of oxyethylene units but a fixed alkyl chain length (O5, O10, O20 in Table 2).…”

“…The surfactants' physicochemical properties (Table 1) indicated that besides O5 they are highly hydrophilic surfactants with very good surface properties and low CMC values. Moreover, from this set, only O5 and possibly O10 could potentially be used in CPE technology due to the cloud point below 50 • C. So far, the results revealed that non-ionic surfactants belonging to polyethers of fatty alcohols mainly affect the efficiency of flavonoid extraction from plant material [5,6,12,16]. The extremely effective eluent for flavonoids extraction from Bidens tripartite was the aqueous solution of C9-11 Pareth-5 (Rokanol ® NL5, HLB = 8.6), i.e., the most hydrophilic among the studied Rokanols ® .…”

“…The solubilization process, often called micellar-mediated extraction (MME), occurs mainly through hydrophobic interactions between the extracted substance and surfactant molecules. In addition, electrostatic interactions, especially the formation of hydrogen bonds are important [4][5][6].…”

“…Additionally, the structure of the luteolin glucoside incorporation into the surfactant micelle was theoretically simulated using a molecular dynamic method. The use of both theoretical and experimental methodology is very desirable and often provides additional information and helps to interpret the results [5,6,13,14].…”