Pressurized liquid extraction of phenolic compounds from rice (Oryza sativa) grains.

An analytical pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) process has been studied for the extraction of phenolic compounds from rice grains. A fractional factorial design (2(7-2)) with a centre point was used to optimize PLE parameters such as solvent composition (EtOAc in MeOH), extraction temperature, pressure, flushing, static extraction time, solvent-purge and sample weight. Extraction temperature, solvent and static extraction time were found to have a significant effect on the response value. The optimized method was validated for selectivity, linearity, limits of detection and quantification, recovery and precision. The validated method was successfully applied for the analysis of a wide variety of rice grains. Seventeen phenolic compounds were detected in the sample and guaiacol, ellagic acid, vanillic acid and protocatechuic acid were identified as the most abundant compounds. Nonetheless, different species of rice show very varied compound diversity and levels of compounds in their grain compositions.