The thick root of Acanthophyllum is a rich source of Saponin compounds as it is considered the main compound in it, the existed saponin in the acanthophyllum extract has antioxidant, anti-microbial and emulsifier characteristics. The technology of pulsed electric fields is a non-thermal process that leads to maintain the food materials quality (no change in flavor and taste, nutritional value, and physical characteristics) in addition to inactivation of micro-organisms and high-efficiency extraction.The purpose of this research was to study the efficiency of PEF to study theextraction of saponin and total phenolic compounds from root of acanthophyllum. After removing and taking fat by Soxhlet method, extraction was performed using PEF treatments with voltages of 1000, 4000 and 7000 V and with pulse numbers of 20 and 60 pulses in distilled water solvent. The ability and power of foam formation and emulsion formation index were measured to study the efficiency of saponin extraction, and the amount of total phenols and inhibition rate of radical 2, 2-diphenyl- 1picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) were measured to study the anti-oxidant characteristics of extract and the obtained results compared to the traditional method. The results indicated that with increase in the intensity of field and pulses number both of saponin extraction amount and antioxidant characteristic were increased significantly and the amount of saponin extraction and phenolic compounds were more than traditional treating without applying any thermal processes.
