IJCPE Vol.10 No.1 (March 2009)

Iraqi Journal of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering

Vol.10 No.1 (March2009) 23-27
ISSN: 1997-4884

Extraction of atropine from Datura Innoxia using liquid membrane
Technique

Adel al-Hemiri

*
and Wasan O. Noori

*
Chemical Engineering Department - College of Engineering - University of Baghdad – Iraq

Abstract

Selective recovery of atropine from Datura innoxia seeds was studied. Applying pertraction in a rotating film contactor

(RFC) the alkaloid was successfully recovered from native aqueous extracts obtained from the plant seeds. Decane as a

liquid membrane and sulfuric acid as a stripping agent were used. Pertraction from native liquid extracts provided also

a good atropine refinement, since the most of co-extracted from the plant species remained in the feed or membrane

solution. Solid–liquid extraction of atropine from Datura innoxia seeds was coupled with RF-pertraction in order to

purify simultaneously the extract obtained from the plant. Applying the integrated process, proposed in this study, a

product containing 92.6% atropine was obtained.

Keywords: Extraction, Liquid membrane, Pertraction, Atropine, Purification

Introduction

Atropine sulphate is used widely in medicine for
resuscitation, anesthesia, ophthalmology, treat peptic

ulcer and as an antidote for poisoning by

organophosphate insecticides and nerve gases(1).

Atropine is found in many members of the Solanaceae
family. The most commonly found sources are Atropa

belladonna, Datura innoxia, D. metel, and D.

stramonium. Other sources include members of the

Brugmansia and Hyoscyamus genera. The Nicotiana

genus (including the tobacco plant, N. tabacum) is

also found in the Solanaceae family, but these plants

do not contain atropine or other tropane alkaloids.(2)

Atropine can be extracted from the plant as free bases

using basic aqueous solutions or as salts using

acidified solutions. The obtained aqueous extracts

contain many undesirable co-extracted species and the

content of alkaloids is rather low. Usually, the
obtained native liquid extracts are purified using

repeatedly performed solvent extraction operations.

The alkaloids are extracted from basic solutions with

an appropriate organic solvent. Then, the organic

solutions are stripped by acidic solutions and the

alkaloids are recovered in the stripping solutions as

salts. Because of the relatively low distribution

coefficients, for a complete recovery of the alkaloids,

both extraction and stripping operations have to be

repeated at least three to four times.(4) The difference

in pH values between the two aqueous solutions is the

driving force in this case.(5)

One of the modern techniques of mixture separation is
the application of liquid membranes. They reveal the

ability of selective transport of mixture components in

which a liquid membrane constitutes a separate phase

which separates two other liquid or gas phases. This

property of membranes makes them useful in the

textile and food industries, in hydrometallurgy,

medicine, biotechnology, environmental protection, in

the separation of hydrocarbons and gases, and in the

concentration and separation of amino acids, metal

ions and other mixtures and suspensions.(3) The

alkaloid, atropine, is an organic ester which may be

prepared synthetically by combining tropine and

tropic acid, but is usually obtained by extraction from

some Solanaceae plants.(6)

This work was conducted to study the process of

atropine recovery from its solution using a liquid

University of Baghdad

College of Engineering
Iraqi Journal of Chemical

and Petroleum Engineering

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_inoxia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_metel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brugmansia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyoscyamus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotiana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotiana_tabacum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropane

Extraction of atropine from Datura Innoxia using liquid membrane technique

24
IJCPE Vol.10 No.1 (March 2009)

membrane technique and to apply this procedure for

selective recovery of the alkaloids from native

aqueous extraction of Datura innoxia seeds to produce

atropine sulphate.

Experimental

Reagents and analytical methods used

Studies of atropine permeation through the liquid

membrane were carried out using atropine aqueous

solutions. The atropine was extracted from Datura

innoxia seeds (collected in 2004, region of dyala, Iraq)

applying solid–liquid extraction. Decane (99%, BDH) as

a liquid membrane and sulphuric acid (POCH) as a

stripping agent were used. Ammonia solution (CHEM-

SUPPLY, 30%), and sulphuric acid were used to adjust

the acidity of the aqueous solutions.

Atropine concentration in the aqueous solutions was

measured by UV spectroscopy, λ = 257 nm (λ being the

absorbance) and calculated on the basis of atropine

(hyoscyamine). For this analysis sulphuric acid and

ammonia, as well as diethyl ether (Fluka AG, Buchs SG),

heptane (HOPKIN & WILLIAMS), hexane (ALDRICH),

Diiso propyl ether (BDH) were used. Since the amount

of co-extracted species in the acceptor solutions was

found to be insignificant, atropine concentration in these

solutions was determined directly by UV-spectroscopy,

also the acidity of the aqueous solutions was measured by

means of a laboratory pH meter (MAURITUIUS).

Experimental equipment and procedures

The liquid membrane in a rotating film contactor (RFC)

offers more intensive hydrodynamics and therefore, a

faster pertraction process. Pertraction in a RFC is a
special bulk liquid membrane technique in which two

aqueous solutions (feed and stripping solutions) form

mobile films on the surfaces of vertical rotating discs,

partially immersed in the organic membrane liquid. This

pertraction technique provides stable and efficient

continuous operation, avoiding the phase dispersion or

phase intermixing .(7)

The purpose of rotation of hydrophilic discs is to increase

the mass transfer effectiveness, the flow of two crossing

streams produced in the membrane is in such a way that a

vortex flow is achieved. This causes a renewal of the

contact area and considerable intensification of mass

transfer.(8)

Pertraction studies were carried out in a 3000 ml

laboratory rotating film contactor made of Perspex

(Plexiglas®) (Fig.1). The apparatus body contained two

extraction stages of equal volume. The space in the lower

part of each stage is separated into two compartments, for

the feed and stripping solutions, respectively.

Compartments containing the same aqueous solution are
interconnected. The upper part of both compartments

contains the membrane liquid. Four discs, 0.5mm thick

and 0.17m in diameter, mounted vertically on a common

shaft, rotated in each compartment, providing continuous

renewal of the aqueous films, covering the discs, as well

as the stirring of all three liquids. The lower part of each

disc (up to one-third of the disc diameter) is immersed in

the corresponding aqueous solution and the larger, upper

part is immersed in the organic membrane liquid, as

shown in (Fig.2). The discs surfaces being hydrophilic,

intended to homogenize the attached aqueous films.

Hence, the aqueous solutions occupying the lower parts
of each compartment form mobile liquid films on the

corresponding disc surfaces, which are in direct contact

with the common membrane liquid, filling the upper part

of apparatus. The two stages could be connected in a way

permitting co-, counter-current or batch operation modes.

The latter was chosen in our experiments. To homogenize

the aqueous solutions and to provide samples from each

solution, both liquids were re-circulated by means of two

peristaltic pumps. A variable rotation speed electric

motor provided constant shaft rotation.

For the pertraction studies, the following three liquid-

phase system was used:

 feed (donor) solution (F): 250 ml aqueous
solution

 membrane solution (M): 500 ml

 stripping (acceptor) solution (A): 250 ml

Fig. 1 Scheme of Rotating film contactor [4]

Adel al-Hemiri and Wasan O. Noori

25
IJCPE Vol.10 No.1 (March 2009)

Results and Discussion

The results obtained for the extraction of atropine from

Datura innoxia are discussed below.

Effect of type of liquid membrane

Figure (2) presents a comparison of the liquid membranes

used. All five LM to some extent show similar behavior.

During experimentation the white crystals of Atropine

were observed to start forming after about 15 minutes of

operation.

From Fig.(2) it can be seen that decane and heptane gave

the highest concentration of Atropine after one hour of

operation and then the concentration was steady or

dropped only slightly.

However, when using heptane the concentration of

atropine decreased, after one hour, because the

irreversible reaction lead to atropine transport from

acceptor solution to feed solution. Therefore, if heptane is

to be used the reaction must be stopped after one hour. As

can be seen that the other solvents (hexane, propyl ether

and ethyl ether) gave lower concentration values and

there was some loss of these solvents during operation

due to their high volatility, a problem is not encountered

with Decane.

Finally, it should be noted that in the present work decane

and heptane were used (for the first time) along with

other solvents used by earlier workers (viz; Hexane,

Diiso propyl ether and ethyl ether). And Decane was

found to be the best solvent for the duty considered, as

shown below.

105

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

C
o
n
c
e
n
tr

a
ti
o
n
o

f
A

tr
o
p
in

e
(

g
/m

3
)

Time (min)Decane Heptane
Hexane Propyl ether
Ethyl ether

Fig. 2 Effect of liquid membrane used

Effect of pH of the aqueous acceptor solution

From Fig(3), it can be seen that the best results obtained

at pH=2.1 . This is because the atropine must be isolated

as salt by using dilute acid but if acceptor solution is

more diluted which leads to small amount of (H2SO4)

molecular in acceptor aqueous solution therefore, being

not enough to produce large amount of atropine sulphate.

On the other hand when stronger acid is used also gives

smaller amount of Atropine sulphate.

105

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

C
o
n
c
e
n
tr

a
io

n
o

f
A

tr
o
p
in

e
(

g
/m

3
)

Time (min)

pH=2.1 pH=1.5

Fig.3 Effect pH of acceptor solution

Effect of amount of seed

When doubling the amount of seeds (7.2g instead of

3.6g) and keeping the conditions constant. This produced

higher values of atropine sulphate in comparison with the

employed half amount of seeds as shown in Fig (4).

Wherewithal these results increased of seeds weight lead

to increased amount of atropine in feed solution in the

same time in membrane as well as in the stripping phase.
It is reasonable to observe increases in extraction by

increasing the atropine concentration in the feed phase.

This is true for all extraction processes.

100

120

140

160

0 50 100 150

C
o
n
c
e
n
tr

a
ti
o
n
o

f
A

tr
o
p
in

e
(

g
/m

3
)

Time (min)

Decane (w=3.6)

Fig.4 Effect of amount of seeds

Extraction of atropine from Datura Innoxia using liquid membrane technique

26
IJCPE Vol.10 No.1 (March 2009)

Effect of pH of feed solution

It is observed that the pH of the aqueous donor (feed)

phase played an important role on the extraction of

atropine values. From Fig (5) It can be seen that the best

result when pH equal 9.4

100

120

140

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

A
tr

o
p

in
e
c

o
n
c
e
n
tr

a
ti
o
n
(
g
/m

3
)

pH of feed solution

Fig.5, Effect pH of feed solution

In addition, the experiments were carried out under the

best conditions obtained, unless otherwise stated, these

conditions are: pH of feed solution 9.4, rpm=10, weight

of seeds=3.6gm, pH of acceptor solution 2.1 and two

stage unit.

Yield

Datura innoxia contain atropine, hyoscine as well as

small amount of hyoscyamine and other alkaloids.

Generally the content of alkaloids in Datura is (0.01 - 3

%) from dry weight, this percentage depended on plant

type, environmental and agriculture process.(9),(10)

From Herbal India Constitution the major

chemical compounds found in Datura innoxia is 33%

atropine, 66% hyoscine and 1% hyoscyamine oxide and

other compounds.(11)

Therefore the maximum concentration of atropine in

seeds is theoretically (3% * 0.33 * 3.6gram/ 250cm3)
equal o.1425 * 10-3 (gram/ cm3) = (142.5 gram/m3), but

from our experiments on the local plant the concentration

was found to be (132.54 gram/m3)

And the following table shows the amount of atropine in

feed and in product, as well as the yield(12).

solvent Atropine

in feed

gram/ m
3

Atropine in

product gram/

m
3

Yield %

Decane (two

stage)

130.45 120.855 92.645

Decane (one
stage)

130.45 100.91 77.35

Heptane 130.45 95.148 72.94

Hexane 130.45 31.42 24.086

Diiso propyl

ether

130.45 48.116 36.88

Ethyl ether 130.45 27.292 20.92

Conclusions

Pertraction in a rotating film contactor is a suitable

technique for atropine recovery from its solutions,

including native liquid extracts of Datura innoxia . The

process of atropine recovery from the plant seeds using

decane as a liquid membrane is very selective.

1. The highest atropine yield (92.6%) was achieved

when using two stages.

2. It was found that the decane is the best solvent as

liquid membrane.
(12)

3. Best pH value of acceptor solution is 2.1 and of feed

solution are 9.4.

4. It was found that the atropine conversion increases

with increasing amount of Datura seeds feed.

5. The hydrophilic discs of stainless steel gave good

extraction.

6. Increasing the number of stages caused increased

atropine extraction.

Adel al-Hemiri and Wasan O. Noori

27
IJCPE Vol.10 No.1 (March 2009)

References

1. Atropine sulfate definition of Atropine sulfate in the

Free Online Encyclopedia,

http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Atropine+

sulfate

2. Atropine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropine (23/7/2008).

3. W.Kaminski, W.Kwapinski, (2000) "Applicability of

Liquid Membranes in Environmental Protection",

Polish Journal of Environmental Studies Vol. 9, No. 1

, 37-43.

4. K. Dimitrov, D. Metcheva, L. Boyadzhiev (2005) "

Integrated processes of extraction and liquid

membrane isolation of atropine from Atropa

belladonna roots", Separation and Purification

Technology 46, 41–45.

5. Lubomir Boyadzhiev and Valentina Dimitrova (2006)

"Extraction and Liquid Membrane Preconcentration of

Rosmarinic Acid from Lemon Balm (Melissa

Officinalis L.)", Separation Science and Technology,

41, 877–886.

6. Atropine (International Programme on Chemical

Safety Evaluation, 2002),

http://www.inchem.org/documents/antidote/antidote/atro

pine.htm

7. K. Dimitrov , S. Alexandrova , A. Saboni , E. Debray ,

L. Boyadzhiev (2002) "Recovery of zinc from

chloride media by batch pertraction in a rotating film

contactor", Journal of Membrane Science 207 (2002)

119–127

8. Wladyslaw Kaminski and Witold Kwapinski

,(2001)"Hydrodynamics and Mass Transfer in Liquid

Membrane with Crossing Stream", Ind. Eng. Chem.

Res., 40, 1234-1238

9. Verpoorte . R. and Al Fermann , A. W.

(2000)"Metabolic Engineering of Plant Secondary

metabolism", Kluwer Academic Publishers ,

Dordrecht, Boston , London .

10. Kitamura . Y . ; Sato . M . and Miura .H . (1992) .

"Differences of Atropine Esterase Activity between

intact Roots of various Tropane Alkaloid – Producing

plants". Phytochemistry. Oxford : Pergamon Press.

Apr. v. 31 (4) p. 1191-1194.

11. Chakravarty , H.L. (1976).Plant Wealth of Iraq. A

Dictionary of Economic plants ,Vol.1 , Botany

Directorate, Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian

Reform, Iraq.

12. Wasan O.N. (2008) "Extraction of Bio-active

Substances from Botanical using Integrated Solvent

Extraction and Liquid Membrane Techniques" MSc

Thesis, Chemical Engineering, University of Baghdad.

http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Atropine+sulfate
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Atropine+sulfate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropine
http://www.inchem.org/documents/antidote/antidote/atropine.htm
http://www.inchem.org/documents/antidote/antidote/atropine.htm