Abstract: The extraction technology for rosmarinic acid from Salvia prattii Hemsl.was optimized by single factor tests and response surface analysis.The content of rosmarinic acid was determined by HPLC and the extraction yield of rosmarinic acid was used as the investigation index.In order to obtain the maximum of extraction yield of rosmarinic acid,three main factors including ratio of solid to liquid,extraction time and concentration of ethanol were selected through single factor tests and further optimized using response surface analysis with Box-Behnken design. As a result,a quadric regression equation for predicting the yield of rosmarinic acid was established. The optimal extraction conditions were determined to be:1:15 as ratio of solid to liquid, 40% of alcohol as extraction solvent and extract for 50 min. Under these conditions,the extraction yield of rosmarinic acid was 12.30 mg/g.The optimal extraction condition was proved to be stable and feasible for the extraction of rosmarinic acid from S.prattii.

Key words: Salvia prattii Hemsl., rosmarinic acid;response surface analysis