A green process for the extraction and separation of the main active ingredients from Rosmarinus officinalis.

Abstract

A process for preparing concentrated extracts of carnosic acid, carnosol, and rosmarinic acid from deoiled leaves of plants in the Lamiaceae family. This process involves extracting the plant material with water at ionic strengths between 0.001 M and 1 M and pH levels between 8.0 and 12.0 to form salts of carnosic acid and its derivatives. The pH of the resulting solution is then adjusted to precipitate a solid extract rich in carnosic acid. The process also includes pre-cleaning of the extract by pH gradient precipitation. This process offers the following advantages: ease of use, low energy consumption, high yield, production safety, and the absence of harmful residual solvents due to safe operation. This process utilizes differential adsorption chromatography on a nonionic adsorbent to obtain a high-purity, carnosic acid-rich extract.