Enhanced bio-extraction of medicinally important plants using xylano-pectinolytic enzymes produced concurrently by Bacillus pumilus AJK

Medicinal plant extracts obtained by chemical methods have drawbacks such as high chemical, time and energy consumption, byproduct formation, lower quality and efficiency, high toxicity and lead to degradation of thermo-sensitive bioactive compounds. The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of crude xylano-pectinolytic enzymes concoction in bio-extraction of medicinally important plant extracts, in order to reduce the use of chemical solvents for extraction. In this regard, various conditions including material to liquid ratio (MLR), enzyme dose, treatment time and stirring speed were optimized and several physico-chemical parameters including pH, total soluble solid (TSS), total dissolved solid (TDS), clarity, reducing sugar, polyphenolic content, viscosity and filterability were studied. The bio-extraction efficiency was found to be best at material-to-liquid ratio (MLR) 1:5-1:6 (g/mL), enzyme dose range between 15:60 to 20:80 (IU/g), treatment time range between 180- 240 min and stirring speed range between 50-60 rpm. Enzymatic extraction of medicinal plants resulted in 7-17% increase in clarity, 27-50% increase in TSS, 3-42% increase in reducing sugars, 20-42% increase in polyphenolic content, 13-53% increase in TDS, 15-22% increase in filterability along with decrease of 3-5% in pH and 18-43% in viscosity. Hence, this eco-friendly bio-extraction strategy could reduce the chemical usage, along with improvement of the physico-chemical properties of medicinally important extracts. The technique also enables the application of greener chemistry in the pharmaceuticals to optimize cleaner methods of extraction. This is the first report manifesting bio-extraction of medicinally important plant extracts using crude xylano-pectinolytic enzymatic concoction produced by a single bacterial isolate.