Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction of Taxifolin, Diosmin, and Quercetin from Abies nephrolepis (Trautv.) Maxim: Kinetic and Thermodynamic Characteristics

Extraction behaviors of the 3 flavonoids taxifolin, diosmin, and quercetin have been investigated in Abies nephrolepis leaves and bark. The following operation parameters—ethanol volume fraction, liquid–solid ratio, temperature, ultrasound irradiation power and time, and ultrasound frequency—were varied to study their effect on the yield of the 3 flavonoids during extraction. The results showed that a low extraction efficiency occurred at 293.15 K due to slow kinetics, while the situation was significantly improved at 333.15 K. The kinetic data for the extraction yields of the 3 flavonoids achieved good fits by the first-order kinetic model. From the thermodynamic analysis results, we realized that the ultrasound-assisted extraction of taxifolin, diosmin, and quercetin from the leaves and bark of A. nephrolepis was a spontaneous and endothermic process in which the disorder increased (ΔG(0) < 0, ΔH(0) > 0, and ΔS(0) > 0). According to the response surface methodology (RSM) analysis, under the optimal operation conditions (ethanol concentration of 50%, liquid–solid ratio of 20 mL/g, frequency of 45 kHz, extraction time of 39.25 min, ultrasound irradiation power of 160 W and temperature of 332.19 K), the total yield of the 3 flavonoids were 100.93 ± 4.01 mg/g from the leaves of A. nephrolepis (with 31.03 ± 1.51 mg/g, 0.31 ± 0.01 mg/g, 69.59 ± 2.57 mg/g for taxifolin, diosmin, and quercetin, respectively), and under the optimal operation conditions (ethanol concentration of 50%, liquid–solid ratio of 20 mL/g, frequency of 45 kHz, extraction time of 36.80 min, ultrasound irradiation power of 150 W and temperature of 328.78 K), 16.05 mg/g ± 0.38 mg/g were obtained from the bark of A. nephrolepis (with 1.44 ± 0.05 mg/g, 0.47 ± 0.01 mg/g, 14.14 ± 0.38 mg/g for taxifolin, diosmin, and quercetin, respectively), which were close to the prediction values.