Effect of ultrasound on henna leaves drying and extraction of lawsone: Experimental and modeling study

[EN] The effect of drying temperature and the application of ultrasound on drying kinetics of Lawsonia inermis (henna) leaves and the extraction of lawsone from the dried samples was addressed. Indeed, henna leaves were dried with and without the application of ultrasound (21.7 kHz, 30.8 kW/m3) at 40, 50 and 60 C with a constant air velocity (1 m/s). As expected, both the increase of temperature and the application of ultrasound decreased the drying time and increased the rate of extraction of the lawsone. The values of the effective diffusion coefficients obtained were used to quantify this influence showing the value increases with higher drying temperature and the application of ultrasound. Moreover, the influence of temperature was quantified by the estimation of the activation energy from an Arrhenius-type equation (46.25 kJ/mol in the case of drying without ultrasound application and 44.06 kJ/mol in the case of ultrasonically-assisted drying). Regarding the influence of studied variables on lawsone extraction yield, the higher is the temperature, the lower is the yield, probably linked with lawsone degradation reaction due to thermal treatment. On the contrary, the application of ultrasound improved the extraction yield mainly at the lower drying temperature tested of 40 C.This research was funded by Science and Innovation Ministry of Spain, grant number PID2019-106148RRC42.Bennaceur, S.; Berreghioua, A.; Bennamoun, L.; Mulet Pons, A.; Draoui, B.; Abid, M.; Carcel, JA. (2021). Effect of ultrasound on henna leaves drying and extraction of lawsone: Experimental and modeling study. Energies. 14(5):1-11. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14051329S11114

PHYTOCHEMICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE MEDICINAL PLANT MORICANDIA ARVENSIS L. FROM ALGERIAN SAHARA

Objective: The aim of this research was to isolate and identify flavonoids extracted from the leaves of Moricandia arvensis.Methods: The phytochemical screening reaction and thin-layer chromatography have been used to characterize the chemical groups, before they were identified by nuclear magnetic resonance.Results: The leaves contain essentially flavonoids, tannins, cardenolides, saponins, and alkaloids. The phytochemical investigation of the water-acetone extract led to the isolation of five flavonoids derivatives, namely: 5,7-dihydroxy-3,6,4'-trimethoxyflavone (1); 5,7,4'-trihydroxy- 3,6,8,3'-tetramethoxyflavone (2); 3,3',4', 5,7- pentahydroxy flavanone (3); 3-glucosyl 3',4',5,7 tetrahydroxy flavonol (4); and kaempférol-3- digalactopyranoside (5). The structures of 1–5 were identified by comparison of their spectral data with those reported in the literature.Conclusion: In this work, it was possible to isolate and identify five flavonoids after fractionation of the hydroacetone extract from the leaves of the medicinal plant M. arvensis