Application of Ultrasonic Technology to Tea Saponin Extraction

Commercial crude tea saponin as raw material, the effect of ultrasonic technology on tea saponin extraction was investigated. Ethanol was selected as the suitable extraction solvent. The six single factors including ethanol concentration, solid-liquid ratio, ultrasonic time, ultrasonic power, ultrasonic frequency and ultrasonic extraction temperature were studied. The four factors of ethanol concentration, solid-liquid ratio, ultrasonic time, ultrasonic temperature were mainly studied by designing orthogonal experimental. The results show that tea saponin content increases from 48.57% to 90.21% under optimum conditions of ethanol concentration 90% (mL/mL), ultrasonic extraction temperature 40 °C, solid-liquid ratio 1:9, ultrasonic extraction time 40 min. The result indicates that the content of the tea saponin could be effectively improved through the ultrasonic technology.