Abstract: Arabogalactan was extracted from wood flour of Larix gmelinii Rubr.with water under microwave radiation.Effects of microwave power, extraction time, wood flour particle size and ratio of solid to liquid on the yield were investigated.Optimum extraction parameters were obtained as follows:490 W microwave power, 25 min, 1:35 ratio of solid to liquid(by mass), 0.20-0.30 mm wood flour particle size.Under these conditions, the extraction yield was 17.47%, which was 1.6% higher than that from the traditional water bath extraction.Extraction time by the new method was just 1/12 of that by the traditional method.FTIR spectra analysis indicated that structural characteristics of the extractives obtained under microwave radiation were almost identical to those from the traditional method.

Key words: microwave extraction, Larix gmelinii Rupr.wood, arabogalactan