Process intensification on the enhancement of allicin yield from Allium sativum through ultrasound attenuated nonionic micellar extraction

Allicin is a bioactive phytochemical and a defense imitative compound of Allium sativum. Allicin's multidirectional health benefits (anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anticancer etc.) have drawn several research interests in the recent years. The present investigation demonstrates an indigenous sustainable hybrid extraction strategy, where a nonionic polysorbate surfactant based micellar solvent system was formulated and applied along with ultrasonication for intensifying the extraction of phytodrug allicin from garlic. The results revealed that at the optimized conditions of various process parameters viz., temperature 30 degrees C, pH 7, ionic concentration of 1 mM Mg2+, solvent:clove ratio at 10:1 (ml/g), ultrasonic amplitude of 40%, duty cycle 80%, time 60 min, 0.07 mM tween 80 surfactant concentration, maximum extraction efficiency of the allicin (4.33 mg/g of clove) from fresh garlic were obtained. Further, this hybrid method was able to increase the final yield of allicin by -2.5 fold compared to the conventional type extraction. The micelle system reduced the loss of allicin due to degradation by -15%. Finally, the antibacterial assay reveals that this hybrid extraction process can uphold the bioactivity of the phytodrug allicin. Thus, this proposed method can be considered as suitable, effective and sustainable strategy to extract allicin.