Innovative approaches to extracting phenolics from Echinacea purpurea : maximizing yield and efficacy

Šenica, Mateja (author), Mlinšek, Gregor (author), Rusjan, Denis (author), Mikulič Petkovšek, Maja (author)

People have long been interested in plants rich in secondary metabolites and have tried to isolate them outside the plants. Purple coneflower is a crucial medicinal plant, known for its broad spectrum of bioactive substances. The type of solvent and the duration of maceration had an important impact on the phenolic level of purple coneflower leaves, flowers and roots. The flowers and leaves had a significantly higher phenolic concentration than the roots. The results of this study show the importance of stabilizing and regulating the polarity of the solvent and the duration of maceration to obtain the highest yield of phenolics from purple coneflower. The greatest yield of phenolics was gained with two natural extraction solvents, 5% acetic acid and glycerol, after 3 days of maceration, yielding (1696.05 mg 100 g$^{−1}$ DW) and (2796.94 mg 100 g$^{−1}$ DW) from the flowers of purple coneflower, respectively. For purple coneflower leaves and roots, the best extraction method was 40% ethanol after 3 days of maceration, and the total content analyzed was 1022.43 mg 100 g$^{−1}$ DW and 1011.32 mg 100 g$^{−1}$ DW, respectively. Different phenolics respond significantly to different maceration factors, but the best product from the flowers of purple coneflower is glycerol extract after 9 days of maceration. From the leaves of purple coneflower, we obtained the highest phenolic yield when producing extract in glycerol, a 40% ethanol tincture, or an acetic acid product after 3 days of maceration.

• Language: English
• Keywords: purple coneflower, phenolic compounds, extraction efficiency, solvents, functional ingredients
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 13 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 14, iss. 13, art. 2325
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-170503
• UDC: 63
• ISSN on article: 2304-8158
• DOI: 10.3390/foods14132325
• COBISS.SI-ID: 241590019
• Publication date in RUL: 07.07.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Foods
• Shortened title: Foods
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2304-8158
• COBISS.SI-ID: 512252472

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: ameriški slamnik, fenolne spojine, ekstrakcija, topila, funkcionalne sestavine

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P4-0013
• Name: Hortikultura