Ultrasonic Assisted Extraction (UAE) is a modern extraction technique that utilizes ultrasound energy to enhance mass transfer processes, widely used for the extraction of natural products, pharmaceutical ingredients, and food active substances.

With the development of ultrasonic technology, ultrasonic medicine extraction equipment is widely used in industries such as traditional Chinese medicine, food, and health products. It is widely applicable for the extraction of effective ingredients from traditional Chinese medicine and natural plants, and is suitable for the construction, renovation, and expansion of extraction workshops; Development of new drugs and products; The ideal extraction equipment for medical science institutes, university pharmaceutical companies, and enterprises engaged in extraction to extract traditional Chinese medicine and natural products from plant and animal medicinal materials using various methods, and for experimental research applications.

Principle of ultrasonic assisted extraction technology in pharmacy herbal medicine
Ultrasonic extraction technology is a method that utilizes the cavitation effect generated by ultrasonic vibration to improve the efficiency of extracting effective ingredients from traditional Chinese medicine. This technology generates tiny bubbles in the liquid through the propagation of high-frequency sound waves. These bubbles rapidly expand and collapse in the liquid, producing strong shear forces that crush and vibrate various traditional Chinese medicinal materials, allowing the drug components to be quickly released into the solvent.
At present, due to its unique advantages of short extraction time, high extraction rate, and low extraction temperature, ultrasonic extraction is widely used in the extraction of effective chemical components from traditional Chinese medicine and various animals and plants. It has high extraction efficiency for compounds such as glycosides, alkaloids, polysaccharides, flavonoids, etc. in traditional Chinese medicine.

Ultrasonic waves generate micro jets and shock waves through cavitation effects, damaging plant cell walls and promoting solvent penetration, thereby accelerating the dissolution of target components. The main mechanisms include:
Cavitation effect: Ultrasonic waves generate tiny bubbles in liquid, and local high temperature and high pressure are generated when the bubbles rupture
Mechanical effect: Micro jet impacts cell structure, increasing cell permeability

Thermal effect: Local temperature rise promotes molecular motion

Interpretation of the advantages of ultrasonic assisted extraction
1. High extraction efficiency: The physical properties of ultrasound promote the breaking or deformation of plant cell tissues, making the extraction of effective ingredients in Chinese herbal medicine more complete, and the extraction rate is significantly increased by 50-500% compared to traditional processes.
2. Short extraction time: Usually, a good extraction rate can be obtained within 10-30 minutes, greatly reducing the extraction time and increasing the processing capacity of medicinal materials.
3. Low temperature extraction: It has a protective effect on the active ingredients in medicinal materials that are unstable, easily hydrolyzed or oxidized when exposed to heat, while greatly saving energy consumption.
4. Wide adaptability: not limited by the polarity and molecular weight of ingredients, suitable for the extraction of most types of Chinese herbal medicines and various components, with a complete set of equipment.
5. Less impurities in the extract: The effective ingredients are easy to separate and purify, the operating cost of the extraction process is low, and the comprehensive economic benefits are significant.
6. Solvent cost saving: Reduce ethanol usage by 50% and directly reduce waste liquid treatment costs by 70%.

Characteristics of ultrasonic assisted extraction
The extraction of effective ingredients from traditional Chinese medicinal materials is a new method and process that completely changes the traditional water boiling and alcohol precipitation extraction method in traditional Chinese medicine pharmaceuticals. Compared with boiling and alcohol precipitation processes, ultrasonic extraction has the following prominent characteristics:
(1) No need for high temperature. Ultrasonic enhanced extraction is carried out at a water temperature of 40 ℃ -50 ℃, without boiling at high temperatures, and without damaging certain medicinal ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine that are thermally unstable, prone to hydrolysis or oxidation. Ultrasound can promote the breaking of plant cell walls and improve the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine
(2) Atmospheric pressure extraction has good safety, simple and easy operation, and convenient maintenance.
(3) High extraction efficiency. Ultrasonic enhanced extraction can achieve the best extraction rate within 20-40 minutes, with extraction time only one-third or less of boiling and alcohol precipitation methods. The extraction is sufficient, and the extraction amount is more than twice that of traditional methods. According to statistics, ultrasound has a very high working efficiency at 65-70 º C. And the effective ingredients of Chinese herbal plants are basically not damaged within a temperature of 65 º C. After adding ultrasound (at 65 degrees), the extraction time of plant active ingredients is about 40 minutes. The cooking time of the steaming method often requires two to three hours of fermentation, which is more than three times the time required for ultrasonic extraction when the colonizing agent is used to burst the building.
(4) Has broad-spectrum properties. Widely applicable, the vast majority of traditional Chinese medicine ingredients can be extracted by ultrasound.
(5) Ultrasonic extraction has little effect on the properties (such as polarity) of the solvent and target extract. Therefore, there are multiple types of extraction solvents available and a wide range of target extracts.
(6) Reduce energy consumption. Due to the fact that ultrasonic extraction does not require heating or has a low heating temperature and short extraction time, energy consumption is greatly reduced.
(7) The processing capacity of medicinal materials is large, which can be doubled or multiplied several times, and there are few impurities. The effective ingredients are easy to separate and purify.
(8) The extraction process has low cost and significant comprehensive economic benefits
The advantages of ultrasonic extraction compared to traditional herbal ingredient extraction methods :
1.Shorten extraction time
The traditional Chinese medicine extraction machine utilizes the cavitation effect generated by ultrasound to accelerate the entry of solvents into cells and rapidly transfer chemical components inside the cells into the solvent, creating a concentration difference between inside and outside the cells, promoting the diffusion of chemical components from high concentration solutions to low concentration solutions, and then achieving the purpose of extracting traditional Chinese medicine components through separation. Compared with traditional extraction methods, traditional Chinese medicine extraction machines greatly accelerate extraction time and enhance penetration.
2.Increase in proposal rate
The traditional Chinese medicine extraction machine utilizes the cavitation process generated by ultrasonic vibration, and the force generated by the energy released at the moment of cavitation bubble collapse causes the cell wall in the substance to rupture, allowing the solvent to directly enter the interior of the cell. The residual substances (components) in the cell are directly transferred into the solvent under the action of ultrasound, and various chemical components in the cytoplasm of the cell are replaced by the solvent.
In addition, when plant-based substances are subjected to ultrasound in a solvent, the cavitation effect generated by ultrasound causes the collapse of the cavitation bubbles generated by ultrasound, which quickly penetrate into the internal cells of the substance, accelerating the mutual permeation and dissolution of the effective components in the solvent and medicinal herbs, and enabling the chemical components to quickly dissolve into the solvent under ultrasound.
Therefore, the traditional Chinese medicine extraction machine can extract all the components contained in the material cells in a very short time. Compared with traditional extraction methods, the extraction rate of internal chemical components of substances is greatly increased, and the effective ingredients are well preserved.
3.Reduction of impurities
Traditional Chinese medicine extraction methods generally contain many impurities, which can cause inconvenience for refining. But the efficiency of traditional Chinese medicine extraction machine is fast, the utilization rate of medicinal materials is high, and the remaining impurities are minimal.
4.Eliminate manual operation
Traditional Chinese medicine extraction generally requires manual labor and is time-consuming and labor-intensive, which is very inconvenient. The traditional Chinese medicine extraction machine is operated by a machine, which is convenient and simple to extract, greatly reducing the involvement of processes and manual labor.