Abstract:

Antler was used as raw material to extract glycosaminoglycan (GAG) with alkaline NaCl solution under the assistance of ultrasonic. On the basis of one-factor-at-a-time investigations, Box-Behnken experimental design was employed to provide experimental data for establishing a quadratic regression model describing GAG yield as a response to ultrasonic power, length of ultrasonic treatment and liquid-to-material ratio and these parameters were optimized by response surface methodology. Length of ultrasonic treatment of 19.57 min, ultrasonic power of 401.2 W and liquid-to-material ratio of 43.8:1 were found optimum. Under these optimum conditions, the GAG yield was 3.29% and higher than that of protease hydrolysis based extraction. This method is easy to operate, simple and cost-saving.

Key words: ultrasonic-assistant extraction, antler, glycosaminoglycan, response surface methodology