Ultrasound-assisted extraction of three bufadienolides from Chinese medicine ChanSu

In this study, the application of ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) method was shown to be more efficient in extracting anti-tumor bufadienolides (bufalin, cinobufagin and resibufogenin) from important animal medicine of ChanSu than the maceration extraction (ME) and soxhlet extraction (SE) method. The effects of ultrasonic variables including extraction solvent, solvent concentration, solvent to solid ratio, ultrasound power, temperature, extraction time and particle size on the yields of three bufadienolides were investigated. The optimum extraction conditions found were: 70% (v/v) methanol solution, solvent to solid ratio of 10 ml/g, ultrasound power of 125 W, temperature of 20 °C, extraction time of 20 min and particle size of 60–80 mesh. The extraction yields of bufalin, cinobufagin and resibufogenin were 43.17 ± 0.85, 52.58 ± 1.12, 137.70 ± 2.65 mg/g, respectively. In order to achieve a similar yield as UAE, soxhlet extraction required 6 h and maceration extraction required much longer time of 18 h. The results indicated that UAE is an alternative method for extracting bufadienolides from ChanSu.