Abstract: Foam separation was applied to extraction of methyl orange from ethanol-water system with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as surfactant. The effects of ethanol volume, gas flow rate, pH, methyl orange concentration and surfactant concentration on its recovery rate were studied. The possibility of foam separation as an effective technology for extracting active components from traditional Chinese medicine in ethanol-water system was discussed. The results show that the recovery rate of methyl orange is above 98.5% and the enrichment ratio 14.38 under the conditions of ethanol volume 25%, pH 6.0, gas flow rate 80 mL/min, methyl orange 35 mg/L, and 80 mg/L CTAB of aqueous solution. The results also suggest that there exists possibility of extracting active components from traditional Chinese medicine in ethanol-water system by increasing the surfactant concentration in a certain range or foam stabilizer to weaken the defoaming effect of ethanol.

Key words: foam separation, ethanol, methyl orange, traditional Chinese medicine

摘要： 采用泡沫分离法对含甲基橙的乙醇水溶液进行了提取研究. 考察了乙醇体积分数、气体流量、pH、甲基橙浓度和表面活性剂浓度对提取效果的影响，并对泡沫分离乙醇-水体系中提取中药有效成分的可行性进行了探讨. 结果表明，以十六烷基三甲基溴化铵(CTAB)为表面活性剂，在乙醇体积分数25%的乙醇-水体系中，在pH 6.0、气速80 mL/min、甲基橙浓度35 mg/L及CTAB浓度80 mg/L的操作条件下，甲基橙的富集比为14.38，回收率在98.5%以上. 在一定范围内提高表面活性剂浓度或加入稳泡剂以削弱乙醇的消泡作用，从而将泡沫分离技术应用于乙醇-水体系中中药有效成分的提取是可能的.

关键词: 泡沫分离, 乙醇, 甲基橙, 中药