Determination of Lignans in Schisandra sphenanthera and Schisandra chinensis Using Ionic Liquid-based Ultrasonic-assisted Extraction and High-performance Liquid Chromatography

A green, rapid and precise sample pretreatment technique, IL-based UAE(ionic liquid-based ultrasonic-assisted extraction), was coupled with high-performance liquid chromatographic separation to identify the main effective components in Schisandra sphenanthera(S. sphenanthera) and Schisandra chinensis(S. chinensis) including schisantherin A, schisandrin A, and deoxyschizandrin. Four different types of ionic liquids have been investigated, finally [C6MIM] [BF4] was used as the extraction solvent. A powder form of S. sphenanthera and S. chinensis was mixed with the [C6MIM][BE4] to produce a suspension. This suspension was ultrasonically extracted in a water bath at room temperature. Several of the process parameters were optimized, including the type of ionic liquid used and its volume, the sample amount, the size of the sample particle, the extraction time, etc. HPLC calibration curves were established for all the analytes and proved to be linear(r> 0.9999). The lowest detection level for schisandrin A was 0.12 mu g/mL, for schisantherin A was 0.08 mu g/mL, and for deoxyschizandrin was 0.10 mu g/mL. The recoveries of the target compounds were from 74.19% to 109.33%. The standard deviations for detection were generally no more than 6.31%. In contrast to conventional extraction methods, the IL-based UAE did not involve volatile organic volatile solvents, and the analysis time, required sample and solvent volumes were also lower than those of the conventional techniques.