Microwave-Assisted Extraction of Flavonoids: A Review

Flavonoids are major bioactive compounds known to be beneficial against many chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disorders, and inflammation. Food products obtained from plants are key sources of flavonoids for humans. However, during different food-processing steps, flavonoids are lost in remarkable amounts. Supplementation of flavonoids as a food additive will help in retaining the required health-beneficial amount of flavonoids in the diet, and extraction is an important step in the preparation of food additives. Microwave extraction is one of the most advanced extraction methods, which has the potential of playing a major role in flavonoid extraction and analytical quantification. The present paper reviews the potential application of microwave extraction for flavonoids and the advantage of microwave-assisted process over the other extraction processes generally employed for extraction.