Production of acteoside from Cistanche tubulosa by β-glucosidase.

Acteoside and echinacoside are the major active components of Herba Cistanches. Facilitated β-glucosidation was investigated as a means of increasing harvest of acteoside from Cistanche tubulosa. Fresh Cistanche tubulosa was treated by microwave moisture processing to inactivate enzymes. β-Glucosidase is capable of hydrolyzing echinacoside for the production of acteoside, so six β-glucosidases were compared for their efficiency, specific activities and kinetic parameters for conversion to acteoside. The acteoside and echinacoside content was found to be higher after microwave processing than by other previously reported methods. The results showed that β-glucosidase isolated from microorganisms (Trichoderma sp.) had highly specific activity towards echinacoside, and there was a 4.83 fold increase in the concentration of acteoside after an incubation period of 2 h. This is the first report of the potential application of β-glucosidases for the facilitated conversion of echinacoside to acteoside in Herba Cistanches extract.