A Novel Green and Efficient Strategy for Natural Products by Extraction with Acidic Electrolytic Oxidation Water-Assisted Deep Eutectic Solvent

The development of efficient and green extraction methods to meet the needs of the food and pharmaceutical industries for natural products has received widespread attention. In this work, a novel two-step extraction process for acid-electrolyzed oxidizing water (AOEW) pretreatment with deep eutectic solvents (DESs) (EWDES) was designed. Screening of 25 ultrasound-assisted DESs and EWDESs revealed that the extraction rate of EWDES (chlorine chloride-acetic acid) (ChCl-AA) was significantly higher than that of UADES (ChCl-AA) and traditional solvents. Back-propagation-genetic algorithm proved superior to response surface methodology in robustness and predictive intelligence. The mechanism analysis demonstrated that the addition of AOEW significantly enhanced the destruction of the cell wall structure, facilitating the entry of DESs into cells and promoting the formation of hydrogen bonds with components, which aid in the delivery of active ingredients. Notably, the addition of AOEW further promotes the formation of hydrogen bonds between DESs and the active ingredients. The EWDES system demonstrates multifunctional capabilities in enhancing the natural product extraction efficiency through synergistic mechanisms. Furthermore, the green evaluation tools validated the environmental sustainability of EWDES.