Hydrolysis of the Extract of Rosa roxburghii Tratt Catalyzed by Imidazolium Ionic Liquids

Abstract

Rosa roxburghii tratt (Cili) is a kind of fruit and medicinal plant in China, which is rich in vitamins and flavonoids. In the study, nine Bronsted acidic ionic liquids were first used as catalysts in the preparation of quercetin directly from the extract of rosa roxburghii tratt. Through rapid screening under the same reaction conditions, [PSMIM][HSO₄] was found to be the best candidate catalyst. Then the sequential experiments were carried out with [PSMIM][HSO₄] as catalyst. The reaction conditions were further optimized by response surface methodology and the hydrolytic dynamics was also investigated. Reusing and recovering of the ionic liquid were also studied with fairly good results. It is proved that this green catalyst is ideal for developing new hydrolysis process for crude extract of total natural flavonoids as the substitute of traditional inorganic acids.