GB740630A - Extracts from vegetable material - Google Patents

Abstract

A process for preparing an extract from raw or partly prepared chlorophyll-containing vegetable matter, e.g. grass, alfalfa or nettles, comprises saponification of the so-called "oil-soluble chlorophyll", solvent extraction of the saponified products to remove unsaponifiable matter, acid treatment of the residue to liberate the chlorophyllins and fatty acids and then removal of the chlorophyllins by treatment with a solvent in which they are insoluble. In an example dried grass meal is extracted with 85 per cent v/v acetone, to give an "oil soluble chlorophyll" (after separation of associated water-soluble matter) which is saponified with 15 per cent of its weight of sodium hydroxide (as an aqueous solution containing 10 grams of sodium hydroxide per 100 mls.) whereafter the mixture is cooled, diluted with water and the unsaponifiable matter extracted with hexane, the chlorophyllins, fatty acids, and associated substances being then liberated by addition of mineral acid, the mixture being then treated with light petroleum in which the chlorophyllins are insoluble and the light petroleum-soluble acidic matter being then distilled in vacuo from the associated impurities and is obtained as a pale-yellow to brown solid, or semi-solid crystalline mass from which sodium or other salts are prepared by the usual methods. Lozenges, chewing gum, dentifrices, oral and therapeutic preparations, surgical and hygenic dressings are prepared embodying the salts of the extract.