Extraction of acetyl 11-keto-β-boswellic acid (AKBA) from Boswellia serrata plant oleo gum resin using novel three phase partitioning (TPP) technique

The oleo gum resin of Boswellia serrata belonging to family Burseraceae, is Ayurvedic medicine and has been used for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and arthritic diseases in many countries. Acetyl 11-keto-+/-boswellic acid (AKBA) is a potent anti-inflammatory agent obtained from oleo gum resin of Boswellic serrata. Our aim is to extract maximum amount of AKBA from Boswellic serrata by using Three Phase Partitioning (TPP) technique. In the TPP system, the effect of different process parameters such as ammonium sulfate concentration, extraction time, slurry to t-butanol ratio, solute to t-butanol ratio, pH and temperature, was studied in order to enhance the extraction of AKBA. Under the optimized conditions of ammonium sulfate concentration 0-50% (w/ v), extraction time 180 min, slurry to t-butanol ratio 1: 1 (v/v), solute to solvent ratio 1: 25 (w/v), pH 6 and temperature 50 degrees C, the maximum yield of AKBA was found to be (80 +/- 0.33 mg/g). TPP technique gave higher extraction yield of AKBA compared to conventional Soxhlet extraction (18 +/- 0.37 mg/g), batch extraction (20 +/- 0.45 mg/g), ultrasound assisted extraction (UAE) (24.23 +/- 0.28 mg/g). Thus, TPP can be recommended as an attractive and simple technique for the extraction of AKBA from Boswellic serrata.