RESUMO
Puerariae Lobatae Radix (PLR), a well-known herbal medicine, is the root of Pueraria lobata (Willd.) Ohwi and has been employed for the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. The purpose of this study was to compare the associated-extraction efficiency of six cyclodextrins (CDs) on five flavonoids in PLR, namely puerarin, daidzein, daidzin, genistein and genistin, which are the major secondary metabolites, and exhibit low water solubility. The six CDs applied were ß-cyclodextrin (ß-CD), γ-cyclodextrin (γ-CD), hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin (HP-ß-CD), hydroxypropyl-γ-cyclodextrin (HP-γ-CD), carboxymethyl-ß-cyclodextrin (CM-ß-CD), and sulfobutyl ether ß-cyclodextrin (SBE-ß-CD). They can be grouped into one of the following three categories: traditional cyclodextrins (ß-CD and γ-CD), water-soluble cyclodextrin derivatives (HP-ß-CD and HP-γ-CD) and ionic cyclodextrin derivatives (SBE-ß-CD and CM-ß-CD). High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to analyze the five flavonoids in the original aqueous extracts (OAE) in the presence or absence of various CDs. The associated-extraction efficiency of the various CDs followed the ranking: SBE-ß-CD > HP-ß-CD > CM-ß-CD > HP-γ-CD > γ-CD > ß-CD. It was clear that SBE-ß-CD presented the highest associated-extraction capability, and it was used to extract the four flavonoids from three PLR products, including raw product, stir- fried product, and product simmered with wheat bran. The results showed that SBE-ß-CD could improve the extraction capability of flavonoids, both from the raw product and in processed products of PLR. In conclusion, CDs, especially SBE-ß-CD, have a promising application for the associated-extraction of flavonoids from PLR.