Separation of glycyrrhizic acid from licorice root extract using macroporous resin

In Vitro Release of Glycyrrhiza Glabra Extract by a Gel-Based Microneedle Patch for Psoriasis Treatment

Microneedle patches are attractive drug delivery systems that give hope for treating skin disorders. In this study, to first fabricate a chitosan-based low-cost microneedle patch (MNP) using a CO2 laser cutter for in vitro purposes was tried and then the delivery and impact of Glycyrrhiza glabra extract (GgE) on the cell population by this microneedle was evaluated. Microscopic analysis, swelling, penetration, degradation, biocompatibility, and drug delivery were carried out to assess the patch's performance. DAPI staining and acridine orange (AO) staining were performed to evaluate cell numbers. Based on the results, the MNs were conical and sharp enough (diameter: 400-500 μm, height: 700-900 μm). They showed notable swelling (2 folds) during 5 min and good degradability during 30 min, which can be considered a burst release. The MNP showed no cytotoxicity against fibroblast cell line L929. It also demonstrated good potential for GgE delivery. The results from AO and DAPI staining approved the reduction in the cell population after GgE delivery. To sum up, the fabricated MNP can be a useful recommendation for lab-scale studies. In addition, a GgE-loaded MNP can be a good remedy for skin disorders in which cell proliferation needs to be controlled.

Adsorption Properties and Preparative Separation of Flavonoids from Rhizoma Smilacis Glabrae Using Macroporous Resins

Astilbin (AST), isoastilbin (ISO), and engeletin (ENG) are the main flavonoids in Rhizoma Smilacis Glabrae (RSG) and have many biological activities. In this study, the adsorption kinetics of AST, ISO, and ENG on HPD-300 resin was investigated and their adsorption processes conformed to a pseudo-second-order kinetics equation. The fitting curves of the intraparticle diffusion model showed three linear stages and did not pass through the origin, meaning the adsorption process of the three flavonoids was controlled by boundary layer diffusion and intraparticle diffusion. Their adsorption isotherms were also constructed and could be well-fitted by the Langmuir equation. A low temperature was favorable for their adsorption. The relative adsorption capacity of ENG was significantly higher than those of the other two compounds, indicating that the substitution pattern on ring B has an important impact on the adsorption of flavonoids with resin. The separation process was optimized by dynamic adsorption/desorption experiments. After separation, the purities of AST, ISO, and ENG increased from 5.55%, 1.22%, and 0.45% to 27.46%, 6.14%, and 2.27%, respectively, and all the recoveries exceeded 75%. After that, the three compounds were further separated by preparative HPLC and silica gel chromatography. In the final product, the purities of AST, ISO, and ENG could reach above 98%.

Advances in production and structural derivatization of the promising molecule ursolic acid

Ursolic acid (UA) is a ursane-type pentacyclic triterpenoid compound, naturally produced in plants via specialized metabolism and exhibits vast range of remarkable physiological activities and pharmacological manifestations. Owing to significant safety and efficacy in different medical conditions, UA may serve as a backbone to produce its derivatives with novel therapeutic functions. This review aims to provide ideas for exploring more diverse structures to improve UA pharmacological activity and increasing its biological yield to meet the industrial requirements by systematically reviewing the current research progress of UA. We first provides an overview of the pharmacological activities, acquisition methods and structural modifications of UA. Among them, we focused on the synthetic modifications of UA to yield valuable derivatives with enhanced therapeutic potential. Furthermore, harnessing the essential advances for green synthesis of UA and its derivatives by advent of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology are of great concern. In this regard, all pivotal advances for enhancing the production of UA have been discussed. In combination with the advantages of UA biosynthesis and transformation strategy, large-scale microbial production of UA is a promising platform for further exploration.

Recent advances in chemical analysis of licorice (Gan-Cao)

Gan-Cao, or licorice, the dried roots and rhizomes of Glycyrrhiza uralensis, G.glabra, and G.inflata, has received considerable interest due to its extensive application in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescriptions (60% approximately), clinical therapy, and as food additives world-wide. Chemical analysis is an important approach to understand the active pharmaceutical components in licorice and its prescriptions, as well as to develop novel methodologies for their quality assessment and control. This comprehensive review describes the advances in the chemical analysis, including sample preparation methods, qualitative and quantitative analysis and biological specimen analysis, based on 113 references for the recent years. Newly established methods are summarized, such as high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS), capillary electrophoresis (CE) and near infrared spectroscopy (NIR), which allows the identification, authentication, and simultaneous detection of multiple compounds in licorice with higher throughput and sensitivity. It is anticipated that this review could provide imperative information for improving the existing quality evaluation methods of licorice and afford scientific basis for further researches on the pharmacodynamic substances of licorice.

Separation of Glycyrrhizic Acid and Its Derivants from Hydrolyzation in Subcritical Water by Macroporous Resin

Glycyrrhizic acid (GL) and its derivants, glycyrrhetinic acid 3-O-mono-β-d-glucuronide (GAMG) and glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) hydrolyzed in subcritical water, are bioactive substances and edulcorators. In this work, a separation strategy for these three substances was established. The effects of adsorbent and eluent were investigated by static/dynamic adsorption and multi-stage desorption with the mechanism analysis. The adsorption of them onto EXA50 resin was well fitted by the pseudo second-order kinetic model. The optimal dynamic adsorption flow rate was 6 bed volume (BV)/h, and water of pH = 12 was used to elute GL at 4 BV/h, then n-buthanol was used subsequently to elute GA at 1 BV/h, and finally 90% ethanol was applied to elute GAMG at 2 BV/h. As a result, purities of these compounds increased, which demonstrated that this adsorption-desorption technology was simple and efficient, and indicated the potential for large-scale purification and preparation of GL and its derivants in the future.

Deproteinization of four macroporous resins for rapeseed meal polysaccharides

In this study, the adsorption/desorption characteristics of rapeseed meal polysaccharides extract on four resins (HP-20, D3520, XAD-16, and AB-8) were evaluated. The results indicated that HP-20 resin had the best purification effect. Based on static adsorption test, the kinetics and isotherms of the four resins for protein and polysaccharide were investigated. The adsorption test showed that the pseudo-second-order kinetics model and the Freundlich isotherm model were more suitable for explanation of the adsorption process for protein and polysaccharide. Static desorption test showed that the highest protein desorption ratios of HP-20, D3520, and AB-8 resins could be obtained with 60% ethanol solution as eluate, and the highest protein desorption ratios of XAD-16 resin could be obtained with 40% ethanol solution as eluate. Dynamic adsorption/desorption tests of HP-20 resin showed that the deproteinization ratio was 91% and the polysaccharide recovery ratio was 62% when the treatment amount was 1.5 BV. Compared with three traditional methods, HP-20 resin adsorption method that the deproteinization ratio was 82% was more potent than the three traditional methods for purifying polysaccharides from rapeseed meal. In addition, UV/vis spectroscopy showed that most of the protein was absorbed by resins, and FT-IR spectroscopy indicated that the purity of the polysaccharide after purification was improved. Rapeseed meal polysaccharides could be effectively deproteinized using HP-20 resin, and it was suitable for purifying polysaccharides from rapeseed meal.

Simultaneous Purification and Separation of Syringoside and Oleuropein from Syringa oblata Lindl. Extract Using Macroporous Resin

This study developed an efficient method to simultaneously separate and purify syringoside and oleuropein from Syringa oblata Lindl. extract using macroporous resins. The adsorption and desorption property of 11 resins were systematically evaluated. Based on the adsorption performance, HPD-100B resin was selected for the separation of syringoside and oleuropein. The HPD-100B resin fitted well to the Langmuir isotherm model (R2 > 0.97), as ascertained by the results of the static adsorption experiment. Kinetic and dynamic adsorption/desorption experiments were conducted using the HPD-100B resin to optimize the separation parameters of syringoside and oleuropein. On the optimal parameters, syringoside and oleuropein were obtained from the 20% and 40% ethanol eluates, respectively. In addition, the adsorption effluent (15–60 BV) contained a large amount of syringoside with less impurities; therefore, this part was also collected for further syringoside separation and enrichment of syringoside. By only one cycle treatment, the syringoside and oleuropein contents in the final products increased by 7.1-fold and 8.2-fold, respectively, compared to the initial extract. The method developed in this study provides a potential basis for the industrial-scale enrichment and separation of syringoside and oleuropein from S. oblata extract.

A Membrane-Based Process for the Recovery of Glycyrrhizin and Phenolic Compounds from Licorice Wastewaters

In this work, the use of polymeric ultrafiltration and nanofiltration membranes was investigated in order to recover glycyrrhizin and phenolic compounds from licorice wastewaters. Filtration experiments were performed on a laboratory scale using four polyamide thin-film composite membranes (GK, GH, GE, and DK, from GE Osmonics) with different molecular weight cut-offs (from 150 to 3500 Da). The permeate flux and retention values of glycyrrhizin, the total polyphenols, the caffeic acid, the total carbohydrate, and the total antioxidant activity as a function of the transmembrane pressure (TMP) and weight reduction factor (WRF) were evaluated. In selected operating conditions, the membrane productivity decreased in the order of GK > DK > GH > GE, with a similar trend to that of water permeability. Glycyrrhizin was totally rejected by selected membranes, independently of TMP and WRF. For the other antioxidant compounds, the retention values increased by increasing both of the parameters. According to the experimental results, a combination of membranes in a sequential design was proposed as a viable approach to produce concentrated fractions enriched in bioactive compounds and purified water from licorice wastewater.

Enrichment of total flavones and licochalcone A from licorice residues and its hypoglycemic activity

Industrial processing of glycyrrhizic leads to a lot of residues which are usually threw away randomly or used as feed. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to study licorice residues as a source of bioactive compounds with potentially applications. In this study, the enrichment and purification of total flavones from the licorice residues was achieved by using macroporous resins. The performances and separation characteristics of four selected macroporous resins with different chemical and physical properties were investigated. HPD-100 resin was the most effective, the content of total flavones increased from 50.94% in the original extract to 82.98% in the 80% ethanol fraction (a 1.63-fold increase). Further purification treatment by polyamide resin, licochalcone A with a purity of 80.28% was obtained in a 45% ethanol fraction, and a higher purity (>85%) of licochalcone A can be obtained by single crystallization operation. And hypoglycemic effect of the total flavones from licorice residues on high fat diet and STZ induced diabetic c57 mice was preliminary investigated. The results showed: the fasting blood glucose of mice in the low and medium dose total flavones group decreased significantly. The proposed technique is uncomplicated, easily managed, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly and is proper for both large-scale licorice residues application and waste management.

Simultaneously separation of xylo-oligosaccharide and lignosulfonate from wheat straw magnesium bisulfite pretreatment spent liquor using ion exchange resin

For wheat straw, an ideal bio-refinery process is that all three major components of biomass could be efficiently utilized to make high value chemicals, MBSP could directly convert the hemicelluloses and lignin into xylo-oligosaccharides and lignosulfonate. However, these value-added compounds still present in spent liquor and thus should be isolated as an individual product. In present work, a simple and efficient ion exchange process was developed for separating xylo-oligosaccharides and lignosulfonate simultaneously from spent liquor. D354 resin was selected for its high adsorption capacity of magnesium lignosulfonate and remarkable selectivity. 93.09% of XOS and 98.03% of lignosulfonate were recovered from the treated spent liquor in a fixed bed column with D354 resin. Overall, 1 L of MBSP spent liquor could coproduce 9.5 g XOS and 74 g lignosulfonate. These results offer an opportunity for complete and effective utilization of biomass by a novel integrated process coupling of MBSP and ion-exchange process.

Efficient in situ separation and production of L-lactic acid by Bacillus coagulans using weak basic anion-exchange resin

To get rid of the dependence on lactic acid neutralizer, a simple and economical approach for efficient in situ separation and production of L-lactic acid was established by Bacillus coagulans using weak basic anion-exchange resin. During ten tested resins, the 335 weak basic anion-exchange resins demonstrated the highest adsorption capacity and selectivity for lactic acid recovery. The adsorption study of the 335 resins for lactic acid confirmed that it is an efficient adsorbent under fermentation condition. Langmuir models gave a good fit to the equilibrium data at 50 °C and the maximum adsorption capacity for lactic acid by 335 resins was about 402 mg/g. Adsorption kinetic experiments showed that pseudo-second-order kinetics model gave a good fit to the adsorption rate. When it was used for in situ fermentation, the yield of L-lactic acid by B. coagulans CC17 was close to traditional fermentation and still maintained at about 82% even after reuse by ten times. These results indicated that in situ separation and production of L-lactic acid using the 335 resins were efficient and feasible. This process could greatly reduce the dosage of neutralizing agent and potentially be used in industry.

Protective effects of glycyrrhizic acid from edible botanical glycyrrhiza glabra against non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in mice

Glycyrrhizic acid protects against non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in mice.