Opportunities and Challenges on the Extraction of Biomolecules from Biomass Using Ionic Liquids

Biomass is the sustainable resource for natural value-added compounds for instance alkaloid, terpenoid, phenolic, saponin, and several others antioxidants which are of great interest for pharmaceutical, food, fine chemicals and cosmetic industries [1]. Almost 40% of the total drugs manufactured are originated from natural products [2]. Therefore extraction of such small biomolecules from bioresources is of outmost importance. The conventional and commercial extraction processes of such biomolecules possess a number of inadequacies such as laborious and energy intensive extraction process, use of volatile organic solvents and environmental concerns