Preparation and application of alcohol based deep eutectic solvents for extraction of curcumin in food samples prior to its spectrophotometric determination

In this study, a novel, simple and economic vortex-assisted alcohol-based deep eutectic solvent microextraction (VA-DES-ME) procedure has been developed for the preconcentration of curcumin in food samples prior to its spectrophotometric determination. A alcohol-based-DES consists of betaine hydrochloride - glycerol (1:3) as extraction solvent and acetone as aprotic solvent at pH 6.0 were used for the preconcentration of curcumin from sample matrix. Some experimental variables such as pH, DES solvent type and volume, aprotic solvent type and volume, vortex time, sample volume and matrix effect etc. were investigated and optimized in detail. Under optimized conditions, the working range, limit of detection and pre-concentration factor were determined to be as 5-300 mu g L-1 and 1.5 mu g L-1 and 100 respectively. Validity of the proposed method was proved by the intraday/inter-day precision studies and addition-recovery test. Consequently, the VA-DES-ME procedure was successfully applied for the extraction and determination of curcumin in food samples.