Abstract: The conditions for the preparation of geniposidic acid from Gardenia extract by alkaline hydrolysis were optimized in this study.The effects of hydrolysis temperature,adding amount of NaOH,solid to liquid ratio,hydrolysis time were investigated and orthogonal experiments of L₉(3⁴) were carried out.The optimal conditions were obtained as follow:hydrolysis temperature was 70 ℃,adding amount of NaOH was 14.0 mL,solid to liquid ratio was 1:30 g/mL,hydrolysis time was 10 min.Under these conditions,the yield of geniposidic acid was 11.53%.The purity of geniposidic acid was increased to 45.33% after static adsorption by activated carbon.

Key words: Gardenia extract, geniposide, geniposidic acid, alkaline hydrolysis, activated carbon