High Power Ultrasonic Liquid Processor With Visional Reactor For Plant Extraction

Ultrasonic Extraction and its Working Principle:

Ultrasonic extraction is the preferred technique to isolate bioactive compounds from botanicals. Sonication achieves a complete extraction and thereby superior extract yields are obtained in a very short extraction time. Being such an efficient extraction method, ultrasonic extraction is cost- and time-saving, whilst resulting in high-quality extracts, which are used for food, supplements and pharmaceuticals.

How Does Ultrasound Cavitation Work?

Ultrasonic extraction is achieved when high-power, low-frequency ultrasound waves are coupled into a slurry consisting of botanical material in a solvent. High-power ultrasonic waves are coupled via a probe-type ultrasonic processor into the slurry. highly energetic ultrasound waves travel through the liquid creating alternating high-pressure / low-pressure cycles, which results in the phenomenon of acoustic cavitation. Acoustic or ultrasonic cavitation leads locally to extreme temperatures, pressures, heating/cooling rates, pressure differentials and high shear forces in the medium. When cavitation bubbles implode on the surface of solids (such as particles, plant cells, tissues etc.), micro-jets and interparticlular collision generate effects such as surface peeling, erosion, particle breakdown, sonoporation (the perforation of cell walls and cell membranes) and cell disruption. Additionally, the implosion of cavitation bubbles in liquid media create macro-turbulences and micro-mixing. Ultrasonic irradiation represents an efficient way to enhance mass transfer processes, since sonication results in cavitation and its related mechanisms such as micros-movement by liquid jets, compression and decompression in the material with the subsequent disruption of cell walls, as well as high heating and cooling rates. Probe-type ultrasonicators can generate very high amplitudes, which is necessary to generate impactful cavitation. SP TECH Ultrasonic manufactures high-performance ultrasonic extractors, which can easily create amplitudes of 100µm in continuous operation. 

Ultrasonic extraction is used in the food, nutritional supplement and pharmaceutical industry to release bioactive compounds such as vitamins, polyphenols, polysaccharides, cannabinoids and other phytochemicals from botanicals. The ultrasound-assisted extraction is based on the working principle of acoustic or ultrasonic cavitation.