Abstract:

In order to make full use of the cake of camellia oleifera, theasaponin was extracted with microwave irradiation. Then, by the orthogonal test, factors affecting the extraction efficiency were analyzed, and the optimal extraction conditions were determined as： a microwave power of 800 W, a solid-to-liquid mass ratio of 1： 18, a raw material size of less than 180μm and an irradiation duration of 280s. In the optimal conditions, the yield of theasaponin reached 11.98%. Furthermore, by considering such factors as the microwave power, the irradiation time, the solvent dosage and the raw material size, a mathematical model describing the relationship between the factors and the extraction efficiency was established based on the Dark-Box method, and the parameters of the model were determined by means of the least square method with Matlab 7.3. The proposed model was finally verified by experiments, with a maximum absolute error of 0. 016% being obtained. It is thus concluded that the proposed model correctly describes the microwave-assisted extraction of theasaponin from the cake of camellia oleifera.

Key words: microwave, extraction, camellia oleifera cake, theasaponin, mathematical model