KR20230033297A - Silymarin Extracting Method of Milk Thistle - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a silymarin extraction method for efficiently extracting silymarin from milk thistle seeds. The silymarin extraction method according to the present invention for extracting silymarin from milk thistle seeds, comprises: a seed drying step of drying milk thistle seeds; a seed grinding step of grinding the dried seeds; a fat removal step of removing fat from the ground seeds through supercritical treatment; a silymarin extraction step of extracting silymarin from milk thistle seeds using fermentation alcohol; and a concentration step of producing a silymarin concentrate by concentrating the fermentation alcohol in which the silymarin is dissolved, wherein the supercritical treatment is performed under conditions in which the temperature of a CO_2 fluid is 50 ℃ and the pressure of the CO_2 fluid is 300 to 400 bar, and the silymarin extraction step is performed at 40℃ for 24 hours after mixing milk thistle seeds with 75 % fermentation alcohol wherein the amount of the fermentation alcohol is 30 times the amount of the milk thistle seeds.

Description

Silymarin Extracting Method of Milk Thistle}

The present invention relates to a silymarin extraction method for efficiently extracting silymarin from the seeds of Milk Thistle.

Silymarin is a kind of flavonoid-based compound, and has four structural isomers of silybin, namely silybin, isosilibinin, silycristin, and silydianin ( silydianin). Silymarin has been well-known as a liver treatment agent and anti-inflammatory agent that promotes the regeneration of hepatocytes and liver tissue along with its strong antioxidant action and effectively decomposes lipid peroxidation in hepatocytes. Studies are being conducted on its effects on blood sugar control, cancer treatment such as breast cancer, cervical cancer, and prostate cancer, and relief of menopausal symptoms.

Silymarin is mainly extracted from the seeds (seeds) of milk thistle, a plant of the thistle Asteraceae of the scientific name Silybum marianum, commonly referred to as thistle. For extraction, a solvent extraction method using a medium-polarity solvent such as ethyl acetate, ethanol, acetone, or methanol is mainly used, and a compression method or steam distillation method is also partially used. For methods of extracting silymarin from milk thistle, Korean Patent Publication No. 1985-0000679 (Title: Method for extracting silymarin from plants) and Patent Publication No. 89-002755 (Title: Method for extracting silymarin from seeds of thistle) , Registered Patent No. 10-1541938 (Name: Novel Milk Thistle, Manufacturing Method and Use), Registered Patent No. 10-1697146 (Name: Method for Highly Efficient Extraction of Silymarin from Thistle).

However, in the conventional extraction method of silymarin, it is difficult to separate or remove the toxic organic solvent used for its dissolution from silymarin, and there is a risk that the solvent may remain in silymarin.

In addition, conventional silymarin extraction methods have limitations in extracting silymarin with high efficiency.

Therefore, the present invention was created in view of the above circumstances, and has a technical purpose to provide a method for extracting silymarin from milk thistle, which can extract silymarin from milk thistle seeds in a very safe and easy way.

In addition, a technical object of the present invention is to provide a method for extracting silymarin from milk thistle, which can extract silymarin from milk thistle seeds with high efficiency.

In order to achieve the above object, a method for extracting silymarin from milk thistle according to a first aspect of the present invention is a silymarin extraction method for extracting silymarin from milk thistle seeds, comprising: a seed drying step of drying the milk thistle seeds; A seed crushing step of crushing, a fat removal step of removing oil and fat from the crushed seeds through supercritical treatment, a silymarin extraction step of extracting silymarin from milk thistle seeds using fermented alcohol, and concentrating the fermented alcohol in which silymarin was dissolved. It comprises a concentration step of generating a silymarin concentrate, and the supercritical treatment is performed under the condition that the temperature of the CO ₂ fluid is 50° C. and the pressure of the CO ₂ fluid is 300 to 400 bar.

In addition, the silymarin extraction method is characterized in that it further comprises a concentrate drying step of drying the silymarin concentrate to form silymarin powder.

In addition, the concentrate drying step is characterized in that it is carried out through a lyophilization or spray drying method.

In addition, the supercritical treatment is characterized in that the temperature of the CO ₂ fluid is 50° C. and the pressure of the CO ₂ fluid is 400 bar for 180 minutes.

The silymarin extraction step is characterized by mixing milk thistle seeds and 75% fermented alcohol 30 times the same, and then performing at 40° C. for 24 hours.

A method for extracting silymarin from milk thistle according to a second aspect of the present invention is a silymarin extraction method for extracting silymarin from milk thistle seeds, comprising: a seed drying step of drying the milk thistle seeds; a seed grinding step of pulverizing the dried seeds; An oil removal step of removing oil and fat from pulverized seeds through supercritical treatment, a silymarin extraction step of extracting silymarin from milk thistle seed flakes using fermented alcohol, and a concentration of concentrating the fermented alcohol in which silymarin is dissolved to produce a silymarin concentrate. The step of extracting silymarin is performed at 40° C. for 24 hours after mixing milk thistle seed and 75% fermented alcohol 30 times the same.

According to the present invention having the above configuration, supercritical treatment is performed on milk thistle seeds prior to extraction of silymarin, and silymarin extraction is performed by optimizing the conditions for supercritical treatment and silymarin extraction, thereby obtaining silymarin The extraction rate can be improved.

In addition, since edible fermented alcohol is used for silymarin extraction, food safety of silymarin can be improved and environmental problems caused by the use of industrial alcohol can be eliminated.

1 is a flowchart illustrating a step-by-step process of extracting silymarin from milk thistle seeds according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a system configuration diagram showing a schematic structure of a supercritical extraction system for removing oil and fat from the seed of FIG. 2 milk thistle.
3 is a silymarin index component test report of a sample powder obtained according to the silymarin extraction method of the present invention.

Hereinafter, an embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, the embodiment described below shows one preferred embodiment of the present invention by way of example, and examples of these embodiments are within the scope of the present invention. is not intended to limit The present invention can be practiced with various modifications within a range that does not deviate from its technical spirit.

1 is a flowchart illustrating a process of extracting silymarin from milk thistle seeds according to an embodiment of the present invention. Milk thistle is a plant that grows wild in the Mediterranean region, North America, and Central Asia. In Korea, it can be cultivated overwintering in the open field in some regions such as Haenam, so it is a crop for cereals such as buckwheat, sorghum, millet, millet, perilla, etc., or rice cultivation. is attracting attention as

When seeds are harvested from milk thistle, the harvested seeds go through an appropriate selection process and then a drying operation is performed (step S1). Drying of the seeds is carried out, for example, through a natural drying method until the moisture content of the seeds is approximately 7 to 10% or less.

The seed of milk thistle is covered with a hard seed coat, and in particular, a large amount of fatty oil, also called wax, is present in the belly and seed coat of the seed. Seed coats and oils reduce the yield of silymarin, so it is desirable to appropriately remove them. In this embodiment, first, the dried seeds are pulverized (S2 step). The crushing of the seed destroys the hard seed coat and increases the overall surface area of the seed to increase the extraction efficiency of oil and silymarin.

Subsequently, oil and fat are removed from the pulverized seeds (Step S3). A compression method or an extraction method using an organic solvent such as hexane may be used to remove fat and oil. However, this method may cause inappropriate problems such as residual solvent, thermal decomposition, inflammability, low selectivity, and environmental pollution. In this embodiment, a supercritical extraction method is preferably employed for the removal of fats and oils.

Figure 2 is a system configuration diagram showing a schematic structure of a supercritical extraction system for removing oil and fat from the seeds of milk thistle. Reference numeral 1 in the drawing denotes an extractor. The extractor 1 is filled with crushed milk thistle seeds. The extractor 1 is supplied with CO ₂ from the CO ₂ tank 2 . At this time, CO ₂ in a liquefied state supplied from the CO ₂ tank 2 is pressurized by the pump 3 and heated by the heater 4 to be converted into a supercritical fluid. Supercritical fluid refers to a state in which a substance in a liquid or gaseous state has reached a critical state in which gaseous and liquid states cannot be distinguished beyond a specific high-temperature and high-pressure boundary point, that is, a supercritical point. Such supercritical fluid destroys the cell wall of plant tissue and acts as a solvent that extracts a specific substance inside with high purity. Since CO ₂ used in the present supercritical extraction system acts as a non-polar solvent, silymarin dissolved in a solvent of intermediate polarity among milk thistle seeds is not extracted, and only oil and fat components are effectively extracted and removed.

The amount of oil and fat extracted from milk thistle seeds may vary depending on the critical setting conditions of the supercritical fluid, that is, its temperature and pressure. In general, if the supercritical extraction temperature and pressure are increased during supercritical extraction, the extraction amount of the desired material increases, while the required characteristics of the device for maintaining the temperature and pressure increase, so the temperature and pressure for supercritical treatment is preferably set appropriately. As a result of the inventor's research on supercritical extraction conditions under various conditions, the oil and fat extraction rate from milk thistle seed shows the best extraction rate when the temperature of CO ₂ is 50 °C and the pressure of CO ₂ reaches 400 bar. After that, the rate of increase in the extraction rate decreases significantly.

Table 1 below shows the oil removal rate according to the main temperature and pressure of CO ₂ .

Retention removal rate according to temperature and pressure of CO ₂ CO ₂ temperature (℃) _CO2 pressure (bar) Crude fat content before skimming (%) Crude fat content after degreasing (%) Retention removal rate (%) 50 200


12.23±4.32 4.36±0.93 64 50 300 3.27±0.09 73 50 400 1.61±0.12 87 60 200 11.15±0.07 9 60 300 2.01±0.28 84 60 400 1.79±0.03 85

Looking at the above test results, as the supercritical treatment conditions for the seed of milk thistle, preferably the temperature of the CO ₂ fluid is set to 50 ° C and the pressure is set to 300-400 bar, more preferably the temperature of the CO ₂ fluid is set to 50 ° C, The pressure is set at 400 bar. And the degreasing time through the supercritical treatment is preferably set to about 180 minutes. Under these conditions, up to 87% of the fats and oils can be removed from milk thistle seeds.

The maintenance extraction time in the extractor 1 is controlled by valves 5 and 6 supplying and discharging supercritical fluid to and from the extractor 1 . The supercritical fluid discharged from the extractor 1 is supplied to the separator 7, where it is separated into CO ₂ gas and oil. The oil separated from the separator 7 passes through the valve 10 to a separate oil tank (shown). not available). Oil degreased from milk thistle seeds can be usefully utilized as cooking oil. In addition, the CO ₂ gas discharged from the separator 7 is supplied to the cooler 9 through the valve 8, liquefied, and then supplied to the CO ₂ tank 2 to be reused for subsequent maintenance and extraction.

After the degreasing treatment, silymarin extraction is performed from the milk thistle seed (step S4). Silymarin extraction is carried out using a neutral polar solvent. In this embodiment, edible fermented alcohol is preferably used as the neutral polar solvent. At this time, the ethanol ratio of fermented alcohol, that is, the ethanol concentration (vol%) of fermented alcohol, the amount of fermented alcohol relative to milk thistle seed (milk thistle seed/fermented alcohol), extraction temperature, and extraction time affect the silymarin yield.

Table 2 below shows silymarin extraction performed under the above extraction conditions, with the amount of fermented alcohol compared to milk thistle seeds 20 times, the extraction temperature set to room temperature, and the extraction time set to 24 hours, and silymarin according to the ethanol concentration of fermented alcohol. It shows the result of examining the content of .

Silymarin content according to ethanol concentration of fermented alcohol Ethanol concentration (% by volume) Milk thistle seeds/fermented spirits (by volume) Temperature (℃) time (hr) transference number(%) Silymarin content (mg/g) 0

1/20

room temperature

24 12 6.17±0.01 25 11 8.33±0.21 50 10 41.69±0.17 75 12 105.98±1.61 100 10 84.19±1.51

Looking at the test results in Table 2, the silymarin content of the final product increases as the concentration of fermented alcohol increases, exhibiting a maximum value when the concentration of fermented alcohol is 75% by volume, and increasing the concentration of fermented alcohol further. In this case, the content of silymarin is rather low. For reference, in Table 2, the yield is based on the amount of the powder finally obtained in the subsequent step S6, and the silymarin content is shown by measuring the amount of silymarin included in the powder.

Table 3 below shows the results of examining the content of silymarin according to the amount of fermented alcohol relative to milk thistle seeds, with the concentration of fermented alcohol set to 75% by volume, the extraction temperature set to room temperature, and the extraction time set to 24 hours.

Silymarin content according to the amount of fermented alcohol compared to seeds Ethanol concentration (% by volume) Milk thistle seeds/fermented spirits (by volume) Temperature (℃) time (hr) transference number(%) Silymarin content (mg/g)

75 1/10

room temperature

24 14 149.58±1.27 1/20 15 186.75±2.87 1/30 15 241.64±0.04 1/40 12 206.80±0.01

Looking at the test results in Table 3, as the amount of fermented alcohol compared to seeds of milk thistle was increased, the content of silymarin extracted increased, and when the amount of fermented alcohol was set to 30 times (by volume) compared to seeds, the maximum value, and when the amount of fermented alcohol is increased beyond that, the content of silymarin is rather decreased.

Table 4 below examines the content of silymarin according to the extraction temperature, that is, the temperature of fermented alcohol, with the concentration of fermented alcohol set to 75% by volume, the amount of fermented alcohol 30 times that of silymarin seeds, and the extraction time set to 4 hours. that showed a result.

Silymarin content according to the temperature of fermented alcohol Ethanol concentration (% by volume) Milk thistle seeds/fermented spirits (by volume) Temperature (℃) time (hr) transference number(%) Silymarin content (mg/g)


75


1/30 4


4 7 42.56±1.97 25 9 141.43±1.77 40 11 231.88±0.81 60 13 120.46±0.15 80 14 223.64±0.24 100 9 189.63±0.01

Looking at the inspection results of Table 4, as the temperature of the fermented alcohol increases, the yield of the finally obtained powder increases. However, looking at the silymarin content, the highest silymarin content was 231.88 mg/g when the temperature of the fermented alcohol was 40 ° C.

Table 5 below shows the results of examining the content of silymarin according to the extraction time in a state where the concentration of fermented alcohol is 75% by volume, the amount of fermented alcohol is 30 times that of silymarin seeds, and the extraction temperature is set to 40 ° C.

Extraction content of silymarin according to extraction time Ethanol concentration (% by volume) Milk thistle seeds/fermented spirits (by volume) Temperature (℃) time (hr) transference number(%) Silymarin content (mg/g)


75


1/30


40 One 8 291.20±1.10 2 11 283.25±0.18 4 13 274.03±0.05 8 16 276.46±3.13 16 12 346.56±0.96 24 12 399.61±0.39

Looking at the test results in Table 5, when the extraction time was set to 8 hours, the highest yield was 16%, but the sample extracted for 24 hours showed the highest silymarin content at 399.61 mg/g.

Considering the above test results comprehensively, silymarin extraction from degreased milk thistle seeds is preferably carried out at about 40 ° C. for 24 hours after putting together milk thistle seeds and 75% fermented alcohol of 30 times the milk thistle seeds in an extraction container. .

When the silymarin extraction is completed, the fermented alcohol from which silymarin is eluted is concentrated in a reduced pressure atmosphere (step S5). Concentration of the fermented alcohol is performed to remove alcohol components from the alcohol in which silymarin is dissolved. Concentration of the fermented alcohol is performed until the concentration reaches 75% by volume, for example, when fermented alcohol having an alcohol concentration of 75% is used.

When the removal of the alcohol component is completed, the silymarin concentrate is dried and powdered as necessary (step S6). At this time, the drying method is not limited to a specific one, but a freeze drying method or a spray drying method is preferably employed.

3 is a silymarin index component test report of sample powder obtained according to the silymarin extraction method of the present invention. As can be seen from the test report, the sample powder according to the silymarin extraction method of the present invention contained 455.54 (mg/g) of silymarin. This shows that the silymarin extraction method according to the present invention can extract silymarin with high purity and high concentration.

In the above, the embodiment according to the present invention has been described. In the above-described embodiment, oil and fat contained in the seed is removed by performing supercritical treatment on the seed of milk thistle. This provides an additional effect of obtaining commercially available edible oil in the silymarin extraction process as well as improving the silymarin extraction rate.

In addition, by using fermented alcohol that is edible for silymarin extraction, food safety of silymarin can be improved and environmental problems caused by the use of industrial alcohol can be eliminated.

In addition, in the above embodiment, since silymarin extraction is performed by selecting optimal conditions for supercritical treatment and optimal conditions for silymarin extraction, the yield and purity of silymarin can be greatly improved.

1: extractor, 2: CO ₂ tank,
3: pump, 4: heater,
5-8: valve, 7: separator.

Claims (6)

In the silymarin extraction method for extracting silymarin from milk thistle seeds,
A seed drying step of drying milk thistle seeds;
A seed crushing step of crushing the dried seeds;
An oil and fat removal step of removing oil and fat from the pulverized seeds through supercritical treatment;
A silymarin extraction step of extracting silymarin from milk thistle seed flakes using fermented alcohol;
It comprises a concentration step of concentrating the fermented alcohol in which silymarin is dissolved to produce a silymarin concentrate,
The supercritical treatment is a method for extracting silymarin from milk thistle, characterized in that the temperature of the CO ₂ fluid is 50 ° C, and the pressure of the CO ₂ fluid is 300 to 40 bar. According to claim 1,
A method for extracting silymarin from milk thistle, characterized in that it further comprises a concentrate drying step of drying the silymarin concentrate to form silymarin powder. According to claim 2,
The concentrate drying step is a method for extracting silymarin from milk thistle, characterized in that carried out through freeze drying or spray dry drying method. According to claim 1,
The supercritical treatment is carried out for 180 minutes under the condition that the temperature of the CO ₂ fluid is 50 ° C and the pressure of the CO ₂ fluid is 400 bar. According to claim 1,
The silymarin extraction step is a method of extracting silymarin from milk thistle, characterized in that the mixture of milk thistle seeds and 75% fermented alcohol 30 times the same is carried out at 40 ° C. for 24 hours, In the silymarin extraction method for extracting silymarin from milk thistle seeds,
A seed drying step of drying milk thistle seeds;
A seed crushing step of crushing the dried seeds;
An oil and fat removal step of removing oil and fat from the pulverized seeds through supercritical treatment;
A silymarin extraction step of extracting silymarin from milk thistle seed flakes using fermented alcohol;
It comprises a concentration step of concentrating the fermented alcohol in which silymarin is dissolved to produce a silymarin concentrate,
The silymarin extraction step is a method of extracting silymarin from milk thistle, characterized in that the mixture of milk thistle seeds and 75% fermented alcohol 30 times the same is carried out at 40 ° C. for 24 hours,

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