Vortex-assisted Ionic Liquid Aqueous Two-phase Extraction of Lignans from Schisandra chinensis

A vortex-assisted ionic liquid aqueous two-phase extraction coupled with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was developed and applied to the determination of seven lignans in Schisandra chinensis. In this study, C₄mimBF₄ and MgSO₄ were used as the extraction solvent and phase forming salt, respectively. With the aid of vortex (1.5 min), the target analytes were extracted into the ionic liquid phase. Then, the composition of the aqueous two-phase system and the extraction conditions were investigated. The results showed that the best extraction yield of lignans in Schisandra chinensis was achieved when the volume of C₄mimBF₄ was 500 μL, the amount of MgSO₄ was 1.6 g and centrifugation condition was at 3000 r/min for 10 min. All target compounds showed a good linear relationship (r>0.9995) in the linear range. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.20~6.98 and 0.65~23.26 ng·mL⁻¹, respectively. The intra-day and inter-day precision (RSD) were lower than 3.97% and 4.19%, respectively. The spiked sample recoveries ranged from 72.22% to 97.19%. Compared with the traditional extraction methods, the extraction time and solvent consumption of this method were reduced. It had the advantages of simple operation, time saving, high efficiency and green, which could be used for the extraction and detection of lignans.