Patent ID: 8247547

Claim:
A method for preparing a Caralluma extract, comprising the steps of: a. drying a Caralluma plant material; b. treating the dried Caralluma plant material by at least one operation selected from a group consisting of sorting, cleaning and sizing and any combination thereof to obtain Caralluma plant material for extraction; c. iteratively extracting the Caralluma plant material with a first ethanol containing solvent system for at least two initial iterations followed by at least two subsequent iterations with a second ethanol containing solvent system to obtain a diluted extract, wherein the concentration of ethanol in the first and second solvent system is 80% and 50% with respect to the volume of each solvent system respectively; d. removing the solvent from the diluted extract by distillation at a temperature below about 40° C. to obtain a concentrate; e. chilling the concentrate at a temperature between about 6 to about 10° C. for a period of between about 7 to about 8 hours to obtain a chilled concentrate; f. filtering the chilled concentrate to obtain a filtrate; g. concentrating the filtrate at a temperature below about 60° C. to obtain a viscous liquid; h. spray drying the concentrated viscous liquid to obtain a powder; and i. pulverizing and sifting the dried powder to obtain a Caralluma extract.