Article

Illicium verum, which is an expensive medicinal plant, contains many valuable active ingredients. However, the rich extractives in Illicium verum biomass are wasted to a large extent due to the inefficient extraction and separation processes. In order to further utilize the resources, four extractives were obtained by the four-stage extractions, and then the active moleculars of YBSJ extractives were identified and analyzed by GC-MS. The results showed that the release rate of Illicium verum fruits increased during drying. The first-stage extractives were acetic acid (48.67%), anethole (26.19%), etc; the second-stage extractives were anethole (80.34%), benzene, cyclohexyl- (19.66%); the third-stage extractives were toluene (26.86%), octane(3.53%), etc; and the fourth -stage extractives were anethole (58.67%), undecane (18.49%), etc. All four of the extractives of the Illicium verum fruits had a majority of their retention times between 10 and 20 min. Furthermore, the four extractives were suitable to extract anethole, whereas only the fourth-stage extraction was suitable to extract hydrocarbons. Thus, the YBSJ extractives of Illicium verum fruits was rich in bioactive components that could be used in biomedicines, rare spices, and high-grade cosmetics and skin care products