Method for the extraction of components made from organic material

1. A process for extracting constituents from an organic material, comprising

a) extracting an organic material wherein the extracting comprises two extractions with different solvents comprising

i) extracting the organic material with a polar phase comprising a monophasic mixture of 50% by volume to 90% by volume of methanol and 50% by volume to 10% by volume of water and, optionally, 0% by volume to 40% by volume of a further solvent or solvent mixture; and

ii) extracting the organic material with an unpolar phase comprising a monophasic unpolar solvent or solvent mixture;

b) combining the extracts obtained from step (i) and step (ii) to form one phase; and

c) extracting the constituents.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the monophasic mixture comprises 80% by volume of methanol and 20% by volume of water.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the monophasic unpolar solvent comprises 30% by volume to 60% by volume of a C 1 - to C 6 -alkyl alcohol, acetone, acetonitrile, ethyl acetate, dimethyl sulfoxide or N,N-dimethylformamide; and 40% by volume to 70% by volume of chloroform, dichloromethane, pentane, hexane, heptane, cyclohexane, carbon tetrachloride or a combination thereof.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the monophasic unpolar solvent comprises 30% by volume to 70% by volume of methanol, and 40% by volume to 60% by volume of dichloromethane.

5. The process of claim 1 , wherein the extracted constituents are derivatized, chromatographed and/or analyzed.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein the process comprises at least one of the following further steps:

i) freezing the organic material;

ii) freeze-drying the organic material;

iii) homogenizing and/or dispersing the organic material;

iv) evaporating an extract or a phase to dryness:

v) carrying out an esterification/transesterification in the unpolar phase;

vi) carrying out an oxime formation in the unpolar phase;

vii) carrying out an oxime formation in the polar phase;

viii) carrying out, in the unpolar phase, a trialkylsilylation where each alkyl radical contains 1 to 6 carbon atoms; or

ix) carrying out, in the point phase, a trialkylsilylation where each alkyl radical contains 1 to 6 carbon atoms.

7. The process of claim 1 , wherein the extracting is carried out at a temperature of from 0° C. to 200° C., at a pressure of from 40 bar to 200 bar, or at both said temperature and said pressure.

8. The process of claim 1 , further comprising carrying out an esterification/transesterification in the unpolar phase wherein the esterification/transesterification is carried out with a volatile acid as a catalyst.

9. The process of claim 1 , wherein the polar phase, the unpolar phase or both additionally comprise up to 5% by weight of buffer salts, acids, bases or combinations thereof.

10. The process of claim 1 , wherein the extracted constituents are analyzed via LC, GC, MS, LC/MS, GC/MS, or LC/MS/MS analysis.

11. The process of claim 1 , wherein the organic material is composed of plant material.

12. The process of claim 1 , which is part of another process for analyzing a metabolic profile.

13. The process of claim 12 , further comprising analyzing the extracted constituents by automatic peak recognition or peak integration.

14. The process of claim 1 , wherein the two extractions of steps (i) and (ii) are carried out in parallel by dividing the organic material and carrying out the extractions of step (i) and (ii) separately.

15. The process of claim 1 , wherein the two extractions of steps (i) and (ii) are carried out in succession, wherein the extraction of step (i) is carried out followed by the extraction of step (ii), or the extraction of step (ii) is carried out followed by the extraction of step (i).