• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.236-241
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• 2013

Pilocarpine is an imidazole alkaloid, found exclusively in the Pilocarpus genus, with huge pharmaceutical importance. In order to extract pilocarpine from Pilocarpus jaborandi, environmentally friendly enzyme-assisted extraction was applied. Viscozyme$^{(R)}$ L, a commercially available enzyme cocktail, was used for the study. The conditions for extraction were optimized on the basis of substrates, enzymes, temperatures and pHs. Optimum conditions for extraction with the highest yield were 30 h reaction of 100 mg substance at $45^{\circ}C$ in 40 ml of 50 mM acetic acid, pH 4. A 10% enzyme concentration was found to be the best for extraction. Total pilocarpine content after extraction was analyzed by HPLC. The total pilocarpine content ($1.14{\mu}g/mg$) obtained from Viscozyme$^{(R)}$ L treatment was 3.08-fold greater than those of the control treatment ($0.37{\mu}g/mg$).