Abstract
Abstract: The extraction of lutein and β-carotene from spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) leaves is important to the dietary supplement industry. A Box-Behnken design and response surface methodology (RSM) were used to investigate the effect of process variables on the ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) of lutein and β-carotene from spinach. Three independent variables, extraction temperature (°C), extraction power (%) and extraction time (min) were studied. Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) followed by UV visualization and densitometry was used as a simple and rapid method for both identification and quantification of lutein and β-carotene during UAE. Methanol extracts of leaves from spinach and authentic standards of lutein and β-carotene were separated by normal-phase TLC with ethyl acetate-acetone (5:4 (v/v)) as the mobile phase. In this study, the combination of TLC, densitometry, and Box–Behnken with RSM methods were effective for the quantitative analysis of lutein and β-carotene from spinach extracts. The resulting quadratic polynomial models for optimizing lutein and β-carotene from spinach had high coefficients of determination of 0.96 and 0.94, respectively. The optimal UAE settings for output of lutein and β-carotene simultaneously from spinach extracts were an extraction temperature of 40 °C, extraction power of 40% (28 W/cm3) and extraction time of 16 min. The identity and purity of each TLC spot was measured using time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Therefore, UAE assisted extraction of carotenes from spinach can provide a source of lutein and β-carotene for the dietary supplement industry
Recommended Citation
Lightfoot, David A., Altemimi, Ammar, Kinsel, Mary and Watson, Dennis G. "Employing Response Surface Methodology for the Optimization of Ultrasound Assisted Extraction of Lutein and β-Carotene from Spinach." Molecules 2015, 20 (Spring 2015): 6611-6625. doi:doi:10.3390/molecules20046611.