Several sugars commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine extraction
I. Introduction
carbohydrateCarbohydrates, also known as carbohydrates, are widely distributed in living organisms. Carbohydrates are not only storage nutrients in living organisms, but also precursors for biosynthesis of other organic compounds. Carbohydrates are another type of important biological information molecules in living organisms other than proteins and nucleic acids. They play an important role in fertilization, development, differentiation, maintenance of nervous system and immune system balance, etc. As a "recognition marker" on the surface of cell molecules, they participate in many physiological and pathological processes in the body, such as the adhesion of leukocytes and endothelial cells in inflammatory reactions, the infection of resident cells by bacteria and viruses, and the immune recognition of antigens. With the development of glycobiology, the study of carbohydrates, the information molecules of cell recognition and regulation in living things, will surely become one of the important contents of the study of high-level life phenomena in multicellular organisms in the 21st century.
According to the number of carbohydrates, carbohydrates can be divided into monosaccharides, oligosaccharides and polysaccharides.
Monosaccharides are mostly crystalline, sweet, soluble in environmental pollution, soluble in dilute alcohols, insoluble in high concentrations of ethanol, insoluble in low polar solvents such as ether and benzene, with optical rotation and reduction.
Oligosaccharides are also known as oligosaccharides. The most widely distributed oligosaccharide in plants and in a free state is sucrose. Most of them are formed by the polymerization of different sugars, and can also be formed by the polymerization of the same monosaccharide. They have similar properties to monosaccharides: crystalline, sweet, easily soluble in water, insoluble or insoluble in organic agents, easily hydrolyzed into monosaccharides by enzymes or acids and optically active. When there are free aldose or ketone groups in the molecule, it has reductivity.
Polysaccharides consist of 10 monosaccharide molecules, usually hundreds or even thousands of monosaccharide molecules. Polysaccharides composed of a monosaccharide are called homopolysaccharides.
Second, the extraction method of carbohydrates
Natural polysaccharides are mainly extracted and separated from plants or agricultural and sideline products in nature. Commonly used extraction methods include: hot water extraction, acid extraction, alkali extraction, and enzymatic extraction, among which enzymatic methods are biological methods.
3. Crushing of raw materials
The purpose of crushing is to increase the surface area of raw materials and improve the leaching speed. In traditional Chinese medicine extraction production, the medicinal materials used are generally not crushed and are directly put into the production process. Because the film is large, the medicinal materials are not completely broken, and the active ingredients are difficult to completely extract.
The degree of crushing of raw materials depends on the type and nature of the raw materials. Grass raw materials can be crushed coarser, because such raw materials do not have a hard wood structure, and the moisture content is relatively high, the tissue is relatively soft, and during the drying process, due to the serious damage of water-losing cells, tissues and organs, the solvent is easier to penetrate during leaching. Wood raw materials are hard and difficult to penetrate solvents, so they should be crushed finer. Some harder and coarser roots, rhizomes, root blocks, fruits, and seeds should also be crushed finer.
4. Degreasing treatment
Some raw materials contain more oil, fat or wax, which often makes leaching difficult. For example, some leathery leafy medicinal materials have a wax immersion layer in the epidermal cell wall, which can prevent the leaching solvent from infiltrating, making leaching more difficult and requiring dewaxing treatment. There are also some oily materials, such as the seeds of Junjun and Ligustrum lucidum, which should be degreased before leaching. When extracting water-soluble components from most animal organs, they must be degreased and then extracted with polar solvents.
5. Treatment of volatile oil-containing raw materials
It should be pulverized, distilled, and leached in a fresh state to avoid changes in ingredients.
6. Raw material treatment with enzymes and proteins as the main components
Enzymes are the main componentsmaltDilong, papaya, etc., with protein as the main component, there are trichosanthin, placenta and many animal materials. Enzymes and proteins are a kind of volatile and very unstable compounds. They should be separated by breaking the cell wall with a homogenizer in a fresh state. If they cannot be processed in a fresh state in time, after drying or placing, the denaturation and inactivation of enzymes and proteins will occur, which will affect the quality of raw materials and product quality.
