Background:
In the past decades, Chinese herbal medicine has attracted
worldwide attention because they contain a variety of active ingredients which are beneficial
to human health. As a result, there is a growing interest in the extraction of these substances.
However, traditional extraction methods not only need a large amount of extractant,
but are also time-consuming, moreover, the extraction efficiency is extremely poor
and tedious purification steps are required to purify the crude extract. Thus, researchers
hope to find an alternative method for the extraction of these components and the aqueous
two-phase system (ATPS) seems to be one.
Objective:
This review focuses on introducing the properties of the aqueous two-phase
system and summarizing the application of ATPS in the extraction of natural products.
Meanwhile, this review also provided a guideline to researchers who wish to design a suitable ATPS for a specific
target and how to amplify it to industrial-scale.