With the continuous development of the modern technology of traditional Chinese medicine, the use of modern science and technology and methods to explore the extraction and separation of Chinese herbal medicine has achieved certain results, and also provided a powerful means for the development of new Chinese herbal medicine. In the process of Chinese herbal medicine research, extraction technology is an important part in the entire research of Chinese herbal medicine. Whether or not the extraction success directly affects the progress of later experiments and the final efficacy of drugs. Extraction time, temperature, and solvent have a significant impact on the extraction and efficiency of the active ingredients of Chinese herbal medicines. Therefore, the development of extraction technology has attracted more and more people's attention. Traditional solvent extraction methods mainly include decoction, impregnation, reflux, continuous reflux, and seepage. However, due to the complex composition of traditional Chinese medicine, these methods have the disadvantages of long extraction time, solvent loss, and low extraction rate.
Tissue fragmentation extraction method is realized by Flash extraction device. Therefore, it is also called flash extraction method. It is a new technology in the field of Chinese medicine extraction. In the presence of an appropriate solvent, it relies on high-speed mechanical shear force and hyperkinetic molecular filtration technology to break the plant's roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and other materials into fine particles within seconds of room temperature and solvent. The chemical components(or active components) inside the tissue cells are fully in contact with the solvent, and the active components are quickly dissolved and transferred, and the extraction purpose is achieved through filtration.
The flash extractor is composed of shear, mixing and stirring functions. It mainly consists of a broken tool, a power part, a lifting system, a control system, and a material container. Among them, the broken tool and the power system are the key to operation. The broken knife head of the flash extractor is sharp and wearable. The design of the inner and outer double blade is adopted, the outer blade is fixed, and the internal blade rotates at a high speed to produce a crushing effect. The gap between the two blades is maintained, and the size of the gap determines the crushing granularity. In order to improve the extraction efficiency and facilitate filtration, the crushing granularity is generally controlled at 40-60 mesh. Within this granularity, plant tissue particles are mixed with solvents, and the chemical composition inside and outside the tissue can be balanced for a short time, without affecting the final filtration due to the fine particles. In addition, because the broken knife head is modeled on the homogenization of animal tissues, the single knife shredding of the ordinary tissue mash machine is avoided, so that it can be used to break different soft and hard textures. The power part of the extractor is driven by a high-speed motor, which can realize stepless continuous transmission or step gear speed according to the specific broken needs, so that the entire system is in a high-speed dynamic system; The material container is made of an organic solvent resistant material that is equipped with a sealing device and can also be replaced by other appropriate containers.
Flash extractor can keep plant active ingredients to the maximum, not damaged by heat, less solvent, short extraction time, high efficiency, and tool wear, compact structure, safe and reliable use, simple operation, energy saving. Tissue fragmentation extraction technology is suitable for the extraction of various parts of plants, and has made great progress in the extraction process of flavonoids, saponins, tannins, polyphenols and other components, and can be extracted by single varieties. It can also be extracted in multiple varieties.
Compared with the traditional method, the method of tissue fragmentation extraction has certain advantages. Compared with the heating reflux extraction method, the heating reflux extraction method is a widely used method at present. The heating reflux extraction method has less solvent use and more complete extraction, but it has certain limitations on the components that are easily damaged by heat., Generally, organic solvents are used and the heating time is long. It is not suitable for the leaching of heat-sensitive raw materials. The method of tissue fragmentation extraction is used at room temperature and in the presence of an appropriate solvent to avoid the destruction of the active ingredient due to heat. Ultrasonic extraction method is a combination of mechanical effects, cavitation effects, and heat effects to achieve efficient extraction of effective ingredients in medicinal materials. The ultrasonic extraction method and the tissue fragmentation extraction method both have the characteristics of high extraction efficiency. The tissue fragmentation extraction method can extract about 70 % of the active ingredients in medicinal materials within 1 minute or several seconds, and the ultrasonic extraction method is generally in tens of minutes. Between hours, Extracting about 80 % of the effective ingredients of medicinal materials, compared with the time and efficiency used, tissue fragmentation extraction can play an energy saving and consumption reduction role. The frying method is the most common and traditional extraction method for traditional Chinese medicine. It has the advantages of economy, safety, and ease of use. However, it is not suitable for the use of ingredients containing volatile components and heating for destruction. It is difficult for drugs containing polysaccharide ingredients to be extracted and processed. The tissue fragmentation extraction method is carried out at room temperature and is generally completed at about 1 min, which has no effect on volatile and heat-sensitive components.
Corresponding, tissue fragmentation extraction technology also has shortcomings, such as narrow application range, difficulty in filtration after fragmentation, limited extraction containers and so on. The size of the extraction container, rated power, tool arm length, etc., cause the single extraction amount to be limited; For non-drinking tablets, hard rhizomes, dried fruit materials, should be processed into drinking tablets or appropriate crushing, so as not to crush or jam the knife head; Water extract may be difficult to filter due to viscous, suspended, emulsified and other phenomena. However, to maximize the advantages of the flash extractor, overcome its shortcomings, through the development of technological equipment and innovation to improve the efficiency, quality and environmental protection of the large-scale production of Chinese medicine preparations, thus promoting the modernization of the Chinese medicine preparation process.