Microwave-assisted extraction of effective constituents from a Chinese herbal medicine Radix puerariae

Microwave-assisted extraction of the puerarin from the Chinese herbal medicine Radix puerariae can be completed in 1 min. The yield of puerarin extracted from Radix puerariae under different microwave processing conditions are compared in this paper, it was shown that the microwave irradiation did not destroy the structure or molecule of the puerarin. Solvent, microwave processing time and the temperature and pressure in the sample vessel are the main factors that affect microwave-assisted extraction of effective constituents from Radix puerariae. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.