Extraction is an important aspect of many industries, particularly the medicinal and cannabis industries. Various extraction techniques exist to allow producers to recover desired compounds from plant materials and use these extracted substances for many different purposes.
Ultrasonic extraction is quickly growing in popularity among extractors on both big and small scales.
The Basics of Ultrasonic Extraction
Ultrasonic extraction involves the use of ultrasonic waves on plant material in order to disrupt the plant membranes and cell-walls and improve the extraction of the desired substances. One emerging form of this kind of extraction is Ultrasonic Cavitation-Assisted Extraction (UCAE). During UCAE, high-powered ultrasonic waves are directed toward the extract-target material, which form micro bubbles (cavitation phenomenon) enhancing the extraction efficiency.
Positive Aspects of Ultrasonic Extraction
Each extraction method has its hown drawbacks, with the environmental risk as the primary concern to be optimized because of large use of toxic solvents including chloroform, dichloromethane, and benzene among others.
Ultrasonic assisted extraction enable the use of lower amount of solvents and it can be used in combination with some extraction techniques to reduce the solvent waste.
Through ultrasonic assisted extraction is possible to reduce the amount of heat applied to the plant material, in order to reduce the degradation of thermolabile compounds
Common Applications of Ultrasonic Extraction
Ultrasonic extraction is widely applied in various industries. The cannabis industry in particular has embraced and helped advance the technology behind ultrasonic extraction. Food and pharmaceutical industries widely use ultrasonic extraction to process their products as well, with a strong trend in the marketplace to favor green extraction technologies to reduce the environmental impact.
Image: https://www.bigstockphoto.com/it/image-439711478/stock-photo-scientist-in-blue-rubber-puts-a-yellow-solution-in-the-flask-and-beaker-for-dissolving-or-extraction
