An Eco-Friendly Extraction and Purification Method of Nuciferine From Folium Nelumbinis Assisted With P-Sulfonatocalix[6]Arenes

Folium nelumbinis was used as vegetable, functional food and herbal medicine in Asia. In this study, p-sulfonatocalix[6]arenes (SC6A) assisted extraction of nuciferine from the Folium nelumbinis has been carried out to develop an eco-friendly extraction process with high extraction efficacy and facilitated operation. A single factor test was adopted to obtain the optimal extraction conditions, involved the use of 0.4:1:20 (g/g/mL) SC6A / Folium nelumbinis / solution ratio, below 180 μm granulometric fraction and 1 h extraction time with soaking method. Nuciferine and SC6A were separated easily by alkalization, the purity and recovery of nuciferine extracted with SC6A were increased 29.24 and 35.73 times compared with aqueous solution. Moreover, a good reusability of SC6A in the extraction of nuciferine was demonstrated. Competitive fluorescence titration, DSC and FT-IR characterization indicated that SC6A could form host-guest complexes with nuciferine at 1:1 ratio with a binding constant value of 5.55 × 105 M-1.  The study provided an eco-friendly, safe and effective method for further development of nutrition supplements contains nuciferine