Optimization of Ultrasound Assisted Extraction of Isoliquiritigenin from Licorice by Response Surface Methodology

Isoliquiritigenin (ILG) of licorice is a potential cancer chemopreventive agent. In this paper, response surface methodology (RSM) integrating with Box-Behnken design (BBD) was firstly employed to optimize the ILG extraction, which based on the single-factor experiments. According to analysis, the effect of extraction time and ethanol concentration on yields was significantly. The optimum values were the ethanol concentration of 73.25%, extraction time of 27.82 min and liquid-solid ratio of 19.10: 1. Under these conditions, the highest yield of ILG from licorice was 0.26 mg/g.