Abstract

Modelling and purification of quercetin from skin of Allium cepa by soxhlet extractor

Author(s): M.Manasa, S.Manoj Kumar, Meena Vangalapati

Onion (Allium cepa ) is the second most important horticulture crop all over the world. It is used as important source of phytoconstituents and food flavor. Allium cepa is one of the richest source of flavonoids and organosulphur compounds. The extraction was carried out by employing various organic solvents using Soxhlet extraction method.Methanol was found to be the best solvent for the extraction of quercetin from A.cepa. Soxhlet extractor was carried out using methanol at different extraction times to verify the mathematical model proposed in this work. The final formof the proposedmodelswere Es = 5.942(t) + 125.9 forQuercetinwhere Es = yield extract (µg/mL of quercetin) and t = extraction time (hr) and for total phenolic content the final form was Es = 3.294(t) + 41.16 where Es = yield extract (µg/mL of Total phenolic content) and t = extraction time (hr). Purification of quercetin with 1:0.5 ratio of hexane and the partition coefficient was found to be 1.21. The proposed models showed good agreement with experimental data.