Reverse micellar extraction has been widely used in the purification of biomolecules. However, reverse micelles formed by ionic surfactants can only be employed for the extraction of biomolecules that are charged in the extraction system with the electrostatic interaction between surfactants and solutes as the driving force. In this study, the extraction of matrine by using reverse micelles formed by non-ionic TRPO surfactants was studied. Theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrated that the driving force of the extraction is the coordination forces between matrines and TRPOs. Using this coordination-based reverse micellar extraction, matrine can be efficiently separated from oxymatrine and other components in the raw matrine materials. Experimental studies showed that the factors affecting matrine extraction include pH value and TRPO concentration. The existence of ions in the system does not affect the partition coefficient significantly and the addition of a small amount of chloroform in the solution of reverse micelles was found to improve the extraction significantly.
Reverse micellar extraction; Coordination interaction; TRPO reverse micelles; Matrine; Oxymatrine
