Rosemary
(Rosmarinus officinalis L.) is a Mediterranean
herb known for its high antioxidant power
that has been widely attributed to carnosic acid (CA). Passive extractions
of CA have been performed in water by using five commercially available
short-chain alkyl polyglycosides (APG) with alkyl chain lengths ranging
from 4 to 10 carbon atoms and polar heads composed of pentoses and/or
glucoses. APGs are nontoxic amphiphiles with high biodegradability.
Their solubilizing capacity for CA has been determined, highlighting
heptyl glucoside (C7Glu) as the most efficient one, followed
by 2-ethylhexyl glucoside (C6,–2Glu) and isoamyl
xyloside (iC5Xyl). However, iC5Xyl exhibited the highest selectivity toward CA solubilization
as compared to ursolic acid (UA), a potential coextracted compound
of rosemary leaves. In addition, it was found to be the most efficient
amphiphile to extract CA from both ground and whole rosemary leaves.
To optimize the maceration process and the recovery of the extract,
a full factorial design 24 was performed investigating iC5Xyl concentration, temperature, stirring,
and extraction time. A high concentration of hydrotrope was found
to be the most important condition to optimize the maceration step,
while the temperature particularly increases the yield, but in detriment
of the CA content in the final dried extract.