Green efficient octanoic acid based supramolecular solvents for extracting active ingredients from Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim. peels

Green vortex-assisted octanoic acid-ethanol-water supramolecular solvents (OAEW-SUPRAS) were developed for the simultaneous extraction of six phenolics and hydroxy-α-sanshool (HAS) from Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim. peels (ZBMP). The formation of OAEW-SUPRAS was composed of reverse micelle droplets with different sizes, which were caused by desolvation and aggregation. OAEW-SUPRAS were characterized by microscopy and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. OAEW-SUPRAS can quickly extract active ingredients with different polarity and obtain excellent extraction yields (9.62 mg/g for phenolics and 41.08 mg/g for HAS). The proposed method was reliable (determination coefficients >0.99), precise (intra-day precision <5.04% and inter-day precision <7.29%) and accurate. The accuracy of the method ranged from 96.1 to 107.5%. The established secondary kinetic models (R 2  > 0.99) were proved a good fit with the extraction process. Under the optimal conditions, the efficiencies of active ingredients extracted by OAEW-SUPRAS were substantially higher than conventional organic reagents and the OAEW-SUPRAS extracts also showed a high antioxidant capacity (IC 50  = 1.49 mg/mL). Finally, the extraction solvent and target compounds were easily recovered and enriched.