TECHNOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF COUNTERCURRENT EXTRACTION: DERIVING BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS FROM PLANT RAW MATERIALS
Wild-growing plants produce a wide range of vitamins, macro- and microelements, mineral salts and other biologically active substances. Even in minute quantities, these constituents can mediate the healing effect on a human body. To date, the most promising method of extracting biologically active compounds from crude wild plant material is solvent extraction. The intensification of the extraction process has seen a new development in the last few years. This paper focuses on obtaining maximum yield of bioactive compounds from wild-growing plants, such as ordinary cowberry, prickly wild rose, sea-buckthorn, ordinary rowan, guelder-rose by a countercurrent extraction method, a continuous process where the plant material moves against the solvent. With that, it examines various extraction agents and their mixtures in relation to the extractives and total flavonoid content, the optimal time of the duration of the extraction. The optimal temperature of the process was found to be corresponding to the boiling point of the solvent. In the future, this study might contribute to the development of high quality new galenical preparations with maximum content of biologically active substances identical to the composition of the source plants to produce pharmaceutical drugs, food supplements, functional foods and cosmetics.