Enhancing the Yield of Bioactive Compounds from Sclerocarya birrea Bark by Green Extraction Approaches Cádiz Gurrea, María de la Luz Lozano Sánchez, Jesús Fernández Ochoa, Álvaro Segura Carretero, Antonio Sclerocarya birrea Bark Green extraction Proanthocyanidins PLE Sclerocarya birrea is a tree indigenous to Southern Africa with significant importance in rural livelihoods for food, medicine, and carving. The bark, which contains 10–20% tannin, provides several pharmacological benefits as an antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anti-atherogenic, and antioxidant medication, among others. This study compared different extraction techniques used to recover bioactive compounds from marula bark. For this purpose, solid–liquid extraction, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), and pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) were performed under selected conditions, using only “food-grade” solvents. The potential use of the proposed extraction methodologies was evaluated in term of yield, and the individual phenolic composition determined by HPLC–ESI–TOF–MS. PLE provided a high extraction yield in all experimental conditions. With regard to bioactive compounds composition, a total of 71 compounds, a significant percentage of which in a galloyl form, were distributed in five major categories. The largest number of compounds, mostly flavonoid aglycones, were extracted by PLE, generally when the extraction was developed at low temperatures. SFE did prove effective as a way of extracting antidiabetic proanthocyanidins. Advanced extraction techniques represent a powerful tool to obtain bioactive compounds from S. birrea bark, which can be used as supplements or food ingredients, promoting the valorization of this crop. 2020-04-24T11:38:21Z 2020-04-24T11:38:21Z 2019-03-09 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Cádiz-Gurrea, M. D. L. L., Lozano-Sánchez, J., Fernández-Ochoa, Á., & Segura-Carretero, A. (2019). Enhancing the Yield of Bioactive Compounds from Sclerocarya birrea Bark by Green Extraction Approaches. Molecules, 24(5), 966. http://hdl.handle.net/10481/61571 10.3390/molecules24050966 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 3.0 España MDPI