In this study, fermentation was applied to extract cichoric acid from coneflower, which was monitored by HPLC analysis. Our data indicate that the concentration of cichoric acid show significant difference pre- and post- fermentation. The concentration of cichoric acid increased three times if compared with the initial background value. Relative to the microbial fermentation, coneflower was instead soaked in 15% ethanol for the same time period as in fermentation. The result indicated that ethanol alone could not increase the extraction of cichoric acid, and this may be due to the esterification between cichoric acid and ethanol. The concentration of cichoric acid extracted by ethanol alone was about 8% of that by microbial fermentation (30% sugar, 4 days after the treatment). In the mycorrhizal inoculation test, the total dry weight of inoculated coneflower (VA) was more than control. The concentration of cichoric acid in the leaves of inoculated coneflower, 473 μg/mL was significantly higher than uninoculated control, 246 μg/mL. In this study, a combined strategy of mycorrhizal inoculation and microbial fermentation to promote the use of coneflower and its commercial value was evaluated.
