Ultrasound-assisted deep eutectic solvent extraction and macroporous resin enrichment of polyphenols from Cortex Mori: Screening of tyrosinase inhibitors via affinity ultrafiltration-LC-MS and molecular docking.

Authors

Wei Dai, Manqiu Lei, Sina Wang, Lei Jin, Haijun Nan, Liming Pan

Published in

Ultrasonics sonochemistry. Volume 132. Pages 108006. Aug 15, 2026. Epub Aug 15, 2026.

Abstract

Cortex Mori, the dried root bark of Morus alba L., is a rich source of polyphenolic compounds. In this study, an ultrasound-assisted deep eutectic solvent (UAE-DES) strategy was developed for the efficient extraction of polyphenols from Cortex Mori, combined with macroporous resin enrichment and subsequent chemical and functional characterization. Among 36 deep eutectic solvents evaluated, betaine-sucrose (DES-6) exhibited the best extraction performance. Response surface methodology optimized the UAE-DES conditions as 35% water content, 57 °C, liquid-to-solid ratio of 90 mL/g, ultrasound time of 20 min, and power of 520 W, achieving a total phenolic yield of 232.93 ± 0.95 mg GAE/g, which was 28.31% and 32.78% higher than the highest yields obtained using methanol and ethanol, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that ultrasound-DES treatment caused pronounced erosion, pore formation, cracking, and partial collapse of plant cell walls, thereby facilitating solvent penetration and mass transfer. After purification using HPD-100 resin, UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap HRMS identified 58 polyphenolic compounds, including 11 reported from Cortex Mori for the first time. The 70-W2 fraction exhibited strong tyrosinase inhibitory activity (IC₅₀ = 1.92 ± 0.03 µg/mL), surpassing kojic acid (IC₅₀ = 12.54 ± 0.21 µg/mL). Affinity ultrafiltration coupled with LC-MS (UF-LC-MS) screening identified seven potential tyrosinase-binding ligands. Molecular docking showed that 2-hydroxynaringenin 4'-O-glucoside had the most favorable predicted docking score (-10.5 kcal/mol), followed by mulberroside A and 5,7,2',6'-tetrahydroxyflavanone. These candidates require further biochemical and in vivo validation. In addition, the optimized DES retained 90.51 ± 2.28% of its initial extraction performance after the third reuse cycle, while FTIR, viscosity, and density analyses supported its short-term physicochemical stability. These results demonstrate that ultrasound-assisted deep eutectic solvent extraction provides an integrated and resource-efficient approach for polyphenol recovery, activity-oriented enrichment, and prioritization of potential tyrosinase-binding constituents from Cortex Mori.

PMID:
42604606
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Aug 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.