CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Green Analytical Chemistry is based on the design and development of analytical procedures that minimize the amount of hazardous substances used and generated [1,2].The analytical Eco- Scale proposed by Galuzka et al. [3] consists in assigning penalty points (PPS) to parameters of an analytical process that are not in agreement with the ideal green analysis.The extraction is a key step since the main analytical techniques use high volumes of organic solvents of low biodegradability, high cost and high environmental impact. In this context, one of the greatest challenges that Green Chemistry faces is the development of sustainable solvents. Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADES) are introduced as a new innovative class of green extraction media. These sustainable solvents are constituted by a mixture of compounds naturally present in the cell metabolism such as sugars, organic acids, urea and choline chloride. Their use in the extraction step would contribute to the development of sustainable analytical procedures. Bioactive compounds from medicinal plants have been widely studied, since they are attributed with important antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, among others. In the present work, an extraction procedure mediated by a NADES was applied for the recovery of phenolic compounds from Larrea divaricata, an Argentinian autochthonous plant. The extract was analysed by HPLC-DAD, with naringenin, caffeic and ferulic acid, tyrosol and nordihydroguaiaretic acid detected. Analytical Eco-Scale for assessing the greenness of the developed procedure was calculated and compared with traditional extraction techniques. The results highlighted that methodology mediated by NADES is in agreement with green analysis,reaching a 75% reduction of PPS with high phenolic compounds extraction efficiency.