Effect of pre-leaching time before MAE on percentage extraction of tanshinones
Pre-leaching time at room temperature before MAE for 2 min influenced the percentage extraction of tanshinones (Fig. 6). If pre-leaching time was 45 min before MAE, the percentage extraction of tan-shinones can reach the highest. If the pre-leaching time was more than 45 min, tanshinones had been partly transferred from the root of Salvia miltiorrhiza bunge to solvent before MAE. They were easy to decompose at high temperature in the solvent [12], so percentage extraction of tanshinones was de- creased when pre-leaching time was more than 45 min. Pre-leaching for a short time before MAE was of benefit for improving the percentage extraction. Comparison of MAE and conventional extraction methods
Table 1 shows that MAE only for 2 min, ex- traction at room temperature for 24 h, ultrasonic extraction for 75 min, heating reflux extraction for 45 min, Soxhlet extraction for 90 min, MAE can reach almost the same or even higher percentage extraction of tanshinones. MAE obviously can re- duce the extraction time in order to reach the same percentage extraction.