Cold atmospheric plasma pretreatment on the extraction of bioactive compounds from Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi

Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi (SBG) is a traditional medicinal plant for its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antiviral properties. Nevertheless, the current conventional means of extracting the bioactive compounds of SBG are less efficient, and this study aimed to improve the extraction efficiency of flavonoids from SBG by pretreatment with cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAP) technique. The results showed that CAP pretreatment could facilitate an increase in the specific surface area, a reduction in particle size, thus increasing the area in contact to the extraction solvent. The reactive oxygen of CAP can also degrade cell wall components. Ultimately, the extraction efficiency of flavonoids was improved by 8.25%–59.77%. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that CAP is an effective method to enhance the extraction efficiency of SBG bioactive compounds, indicating the potential to improve the nutritional and functional properties of plants in the food industry.