7. Microwave extraction

The use of microwave energy was first described in 1986 by Ganzler and Lane for the extraction of food ingredients. Since then, over 1,000 articles have been published on the subject [F 3 060] . The last decade has seen a growing demand for new extraction techniques that lend themselves to automation, with shorter extraction times, reduced consumption of organic solvents, and lower sample preparation costs.

Advances in microwave extraction have given rise to three classes of techniques:

• microwave-assisted solvent extraction...