Pomegranate
was a popular fruit, and the pomegranate skins (PS)
contained abundant polyphenols. In this article, a novel method based
on Fick’s law, accelerated penetration extraction (APE), was
developed for the first time for polyphenol recovery from PS, which
aimed at precipitating the polyphenols with Ca2+ in alkaline
conditions to elevate the concentration gradient between the cell
and solution, thus promoting the further penetration of polyphenols
to solution. Under the optimal conditions of 8 mg/mL of CaCl2 and 3 mg/mL of NaOH of APE, the highest polyphenol yield of 113.5
mg GAE/g was obtained, higher than solvent extraction (SE, 92.9 mg
GAE/g) by 21.6%. The comparisons of SE and APE were performed, including
the polyphenol yields, UV–vis spectra, composition analysis
by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and DPPH-scavenging
ability. Results showed that APE was non-selective, almost all kinds
of polyphenols could be precipitated by alkaline Ca2+,
and the antioxidation of polyphenols could not be affected by APE.
In addition, the mechanisms were discussed based on the mass transfer
principle. Results indicated that APE was non-selective, efficient,
easily operated, and promising in PS disposal and polyphenol extraction.
Most importantly, the application of APE exploited the different concept
with other methods to enhance the extraction process.