Study of the extraction kinetics of flavonoids from the fruits of Sophora japonica L. with sunflower oil

Among the large number of biologically active substances contained in the fruits of Sophora japonica L., the extraction of flavonoids, substances of medium polarity, is particularly important. The process of extracting them with vegetable oil from fruits is quite complicated. The object of research is the kinetics of the process of extracting flavonoids from Sophora japonica L. fruits with sunflower oil. The influence of temperature, duration, and hydraulic modulus on the extraction process, as well as on the derivation of the equation of the mathematical model, is studied.Mathematical modeling methods are used in the research. Processing of experimental data for the study of extraction kinetics in the vegetable oil:vegetable raw material system is carried out using the Statistica statistical package. In order to derive the equation of the mathematical model of the process of extracting flavonoids from Sophora japonica L. with sunflower oil, the influence of temperature, duration and hydromodulus on the process of transition of the target component – flavonoids to the extract – is investigated. A mathematical model of the dependence of flavonoids on the hydromodulus (H=10–25), temperature (t=25–45 °С) and the duration of the extraction process of Sophora japonica L. (τ=2–10 h) is obtained, which makes it possible to calculate the content of flavonoids with an average relative with an error within 5 %.On the basis of the conducted experimental studies, basic technological schemes for obtaining unrefined sunflower oil of increased biological value are developed, which includes the following stages: preparation of raw materials, treatment of prepared raw materials with sunflower oil during dilution and mixing, separation of oil from raw materials by filtering. The proposed technology is promising, as its implementation is possible not only in food industry enterprises, but also in restaurant establishments, as it does not require expensive equipment, additional production premises and special training of personnel.The mathematical models of the extraction process of Sophora japonica L. with unrefined sunflower oil proposed in the work allow to select the extraction parameters with a high degree of probability and offer the consumer flavonoid-enriched sunflower oil of increased biological value.