Study on the enzymatic-microwave extraction of Astragalus polysaccharides

The microwave-assisted hydrolysis of cellulose was developed for the extraction of Astragalus Polysaccharides(APS).One-factor analysis and orthogonal experimental design were both applied to evaluate the extraction by the extraction rate and the purity of APS.The optimum enzymatic-microwave extraction condition was as follows: the liquid-to-solid ratio was 10∶1;the enzyme ratio was 57.6 U/g;the cellulase reaction time was 60 min before 8 min of microwave irradiation(480 W).The extraction was repeated once.In these conditions,the maximum extraction rate could reach 16.07% and the purity could be up to 88.40%,which were much higher than those obtained from other extraction methods.The enzymatic-microwave assisted extraction is faster and more efficient with higher quality and therefore could be an ideal method for extracting the APS from Radix Astragali.