Ionic liquid-based ultrasound-assisted extraction coupled with liquid chromatography to determine isoflavones in soy foods

Abstract An ionic liquid-based ultrasound-assisted extraction (ILUAE) was developed to extract four isoflavones, genistin, genistein, daidzin, and daidzein, from soy products. Various 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium compounds were investigated and 1-hexyl-3-methyl-imidazolium bromide ([C 6 MIM]Br) (1 M) was selected as the solvent. Several extraction variables, such as ionic liquid concentration, extraction time and solid/liquid ratio were also investigated. A method to determine the isoflavones by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-diode-array detection (DAD) was developed. Under the optimal extraction and chromatographic conditions, the isoflavones exhibited a good linear relationship, between 2.5–50 μg/g for daidzin and 0.5–50 μg/g for genistin, genistein and daidzein. The precision and accuracy of the proposed method were