Recovery of mangostins from Garcinia mangostana peels with an aqueous micellar biphasic system

Methods of extraction and separation of antioxidants from plant sources by chromatography and solvent extraction are often time and solvent consuming, and result in low yields. A simple and mild thermo-induced aqueous micellar biphasic system (AMBS) was used to recover alpha- and gamma-mangostins from Garcinia managostana peels. AMBS composed of non-ionic surfactants such as Triton X-114, Triton X-45, and Pluronic triblock copolymers were developed. Effects of the types of the non-ionic surfactant, its concentration, sample load, pH of the AMBS and the equilibration temperature on recovery of mangostins were studied. The optimum condition for recovery of alpha- and gamma-mangostins was achieved with an AMBS composed of 3% (w/w) Pluronic L-81 and a sample loading of 0.5% (w/w) crude peels. At equilibration temperature of 40 degrees C and pH 8, 2646.6 +/- 1.2 mu g/mL of a-mangostin and 379.4 +/- 1.2 mu g/mL of gamma-mangostin were recovered in the micelle-rich phase of the AMBS with a log partition coefficient of alpha- (log K-gamma) and gamma-mangostin (log K-gamma) of 4.00 +/- 0.02 and 3.36 +/- 0.01; respectively. alpha- and gamma-mangostins could be recovered simultaneously with a yield of 52.93% and 7.59%, respectively in a single-step. This study demonstrated that AMBS can serve as a tool to efficiently recover and separate various bioactive compounds from plant sources. (C) 2017 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.