Can I just use water as a solvent to extract active compound from dragon fruit peel using microwave assisted extraction (MAE)? the active compound is vitamin c, phenolic content and mineral content. Kindly need your advise
Vitamin C and mineral content are whater soluble. You should be precise about the phenolic content and check the solubility. Consecutive exctaction can increase your yeild dramatically.
You can conduct subcritical water extraction for phenolic componds. Valizade et al. extracted curcumin which is a phenolic compound. You can follow their article.