EXTRACTION forms the first basic step in medicinal plant research because the preparation of crude extracts from plants is the starting point for the isolation and purification of chemical constituents present in plants. EXTRACTION techniques have been widely investigated to obtain such valuable natural compounds from plants. The traditional technique requires longer EXTRACTION time and higher SOLVENT consumption. Therefore, there is an increasing demand for new EXTRACTION techniques with shortened EXTRACTION time, reduced organic SOLVENT consumption, and increased pollution prevention. Novel EXTRACTION methods including ultrasound-assisted EXTRACTION, microwave-assisted EXTRACTION and accelerated SOLVENT EXTRACTION are fast and efficient for extracting chemicals from solid plant matrixes. EXTRACTION method could be extracted maximum nutraceuticals with high pure from solid plant materials if it selected correctly. Also, the yield and quality of nutraceuticals should be considered when an EXTRACTION method is selected.

Secondary metabolites of Enteromorpha intestinalis were extracted and their antioxidant effects evaluated. Crude extract was isolated using 96% ethanol at 60 °C for 2 h and then fractionated in order by SOLVENTs including hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, butanol and water.  EXTRACTION yield for crude extract was 3.17% and it varied between 4.07%-40.83% for fractions. Crude extract and fractions exhibited DPPH radical scavenging activity (22%-72%), ABTS radical scavenging (25%-62%), ferric reducing capacity (25%-82%) and total antioxidant activity (0.17-0.34 Abs) among which ethyl acetate fraction shoed the highest antioxidant activity throughout experiments. Besides, butanol (24 mg TA/ gr extract) and ethyl acetate (22 mg TA/ gr extract) fractions contained the highest amount of phenolic contents among crude extract and fractions. Overall, the results of current study revealed that ethyl acetate fraction of seaweed E. intestinalis possess the major bioactive compounds and may be utilized as an antioxidant in food industry.

Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) is an important industrial crop and its seeds contain significant amounts of oil. The EXTRACTION of oil components using SOLVENT at high pressure, or supercritical fluid (SCF), has received much attention. In the present study, statistical analyses showed that the average EXTRACTION yield of seed oil of five tobacco varieties using SFE was 9.33%, which was higher than Sonication (7.75%) and DGF (Deutsche Gesellschaft f_r Fettwissenschaft) standard method B-I5 (87) (8.48%), but lower than Soxhlet (13.72%). Also, fatty acids profile of each extracted oil was determined by gas chromatography. Various saturated and unsaturated fatty acids such as lauric (C12: 0), myristic (C14: 0), palmitic (C16: 0), palmitoleic (C16: 1), stearic (C18: 0), oleic (C18: 1), linoleic (C18: 2), linolenic (C18: 3) and eicosanoic (C20: 0) acids were observed in the extracted oils.

This study was conducted to optimize valuable bioactive compounds EXTRACTION from mulberry leaves using agitated SOLVENT EXTRACTION through Box-Behnken response surface methodology. The effects of process independent variables including temperature (25-45 ºC), agitation intensity (100-300 RPM) and EXTRACTION time (2-6 h) on the EXTRACTION yield of valuable bioactive compounds were studied. In this study, the optimized conditions aimed to obtain highest EXTRACTION yield were 38 ºC, 235 RPM and 5 h of EXTRACTION time. Under these conditions, the EXTRACTION yield was 20.05%. The results revealed that the model obtained explains the relationship between the independent variables and response very well and also suitable for predicting EXTRACTION yield using any combination of values for the independent variables. Antioxidant activity of extract obtained under optimized conditions was determined using Diphenyl Picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) assays. The total phenolic content (TPC) of the extract was determined by Folin-Ciocalteu reagent. The TPC and antioxidant activity measured using DPPH and H2O2 assays were 38.12±0.15 mg GAE/g extract, 66.54±0.12% and 4.87±0.16%, respectively. Finally, the results obtained were compared with the results of Soxhlet EXTRACTION method. The results revealed that applying agitated SOLVENT EXTRACTION led to obtain more EXTRACTION yield with higher antioxidant activity within shorter EXTRACTION time.