Hi Shayne 

Whenever you don't know how to proceed with extraction because of lack of knowledge about the phytochemical contents of the plant, you should always proceed with polarity based extraction using solvents of increasing polarity as suggested above. If I was in your place, I would have used petroleum ether /hexane as the first solvent, followed by ethanol and then directly water. Later using chemical tests can ascertain the presence of various phytochemicals. Further the above obtained extracts can be sub-fractionated with other solvents of intermediate polarity like ethyl acetate, chloroform, acetone, methanol etc. 

I have one query towards this question. Why are you discouraged to use Soxhlet apparatus? I think it is better as far as the extraction is concerned and you can always recover the solvent too. If you do maceration also, you cannot recover the solvent and you will have to do repeated extractions for obtaining good yield. May be you can do a comparative evaluation here. Just install single Soxhlet with 50 gm of drug and do the successive extractions. Compare the yields with any other method you are using. If you are using the Continuous counter current extractors and the high efficiency extractors, then definitely they are a better option for time saving and efficiency. 

Regards 

 What sort of compounds do you wish to extract? Knowing this, one can suggest an optimal solvent system.

In the absence of this information, methanol and ethanol are commonly used. Some people use multiple extractions starting with hexane (or petroleum ether), followed by ethyl acetate, dichloromethane, methanol, and finally water. Once they know which solvent extracts their compound, they can just use that solvent for future extractions.

you will get  good result if you performe exhaustive extraction using  hexane Then Ethanol then water

Hi Shayne 

Whenever you don't know how to proceed with extraction because of lack of knowledge about the phytochemical contents of the plant, you should always proceed with polarity based extraction using solvents of increasing polarity as suggested above. If I was in your place, I would have used petroleum ether /hexane as the first solvent, followed by ethanol and then directly water. Later using chemical tests can ascertain the presence of various phytochemicals. Further the above obtained extracts can be sub-fractionated with other solvents of intermediate polarity like ethyl acetate, chloroform, acetone, methanol etc. 

I have one query towards this question. Why are you discouraged to use Soxhlet apparatus? I think it is better as far as the extraction is concerned and you can always recover the solvent too. If you do maceration also, you cannot recover the solvent and you will have to do repeated extractions for obtaining good yield. May be you can do a comparative evaluation here. Just install single Soxhlet with 50 gm of drug and do the successive extractions. Compare the yields with any other method you are using. If you are using the Continuous counter current extractors and the high efficiency extractors, then definitely they are a better option for time saving and efficiency. 

Regards 

Try polarity based hot percolation extraction using soxhlet. 

Hi Alok Nohata

We are discouraged to use the Soxhlet because we don't have that apparatus in our lab.

anyway, thanks for that informative answer.

Hello everyone! Thank you for your answers!

Check these publications for different methods of extraction and chemistry of natural products.