Optimizing the extraction condition of chlorophyll from Alfalfa and investigating its qualitative and quantitative properties in comparison to different plant resources

Chlorophyll is one of the most important natural colorants with many applications in food industry. Two important parameters in the production of chlorophyll are including appropriate resource and method of extraction. Therefore, in this research, at first type of solvent and its concentration during extraction of chlorophyll from alfalfa were determined. Then, Central Composite Design with 6 repeats at the central point was employed to optimize the effect of solvent to solid ratio, temperature and time on the total chlorophyll and a* value. The results indicated that ethanol 90% was the best solvent to extract the maximum yield of chlorophyll (295 mg/100 g d.m.). Moreover, a quadratic model with R2=0.989 was significant. The solvent to solid ratio was the most important parameter and time of extraction had not any significant effect on the yield. The maximum yield (318.5 mg/100 g d.m.) was obtained under temperature of 53.2 °C, time of 34.83 min and solvent to solid ratio 9.99 (ml/g). Finally, the yields of chlorophyll extraction from berry, mulberry, sugar beet leaves and grass were determined and the maximum yield was related to mulberry leaves (692 mg/100 g d.m.) and then, grass and sugar beet had 435 and 362 mg TCC/100 g d.m., respectively.