Abstract: The supersonic-assisted extracting technology of glycyrrhizic acid from liquorice was researched. Combined artificial neural network(ANN) with traditional orthogonal design, a new method of test data analyzing, processing and optimizing was put forward. With this method the test information can be fully used, the change regularity of each factor can be analyzed and the optimum combination can be found. By using this new method, the optimum extraction condition was obtained as follows: ethanol concentration 40%, supersonic time 50min, extracting temperature 20℃, extracting time 20min, supersonic frequency 13kHz and ratio of solid-liquid 1:10. Optimizing extraction technology by ANN, the experimental information could be dig out completely. Applying this preferable extracting technology, the costs of production was reduced, the energy consuming was decreased, and the glycyrrhizic acid content was increased. The results showed that this new method was reasonable and practicable.

Key words: glycyrrhizic acid, supersonic -assisted extraction, extracting technology, artificial neural network