Content area
Full text
Article history
Received: 2 7 October 2011
Received in revised form:
21 May 2012
Accepted:6 June 2012
Keywords
Dukung Anak (Phyllanthus
niruri)
phenolic compounds
solid-to-solvent ratio
antioxidants
antioxidant capacities
Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of solid-to-solvent ratio (1:5. 1:10, 1:15 and 1:20) on the extraction of phenolic compounds (TPC and TFC) and antioxidant capacity (ABTS and DPPH radical scavenging capacity) of P. niruri. Solid-to-solvent ratio showed a significant effect for both phenolic compounds (TPC and TFC) and antioxidant capacity (ABTS and DPPH radical scavenging capacity) with 1:20 was the condition for extracting the highest of phenolic compounds (TPC and TFC) with a value of 5788.7 mg GAE/100 g DW and 1906.5 mg CE/100 g DW, respectively and exhibited high antioxidant capacities (ABTS and DPPH radical scavenging capacities) with a value of 0.820 mM and 1.598 mM, respectively among the four levels studied. TPC was positively and significantly correlated with ABTS and DPPH (r=0.999 and r=0.999) under the effects of solid-to-solvent ratio as compared to TFC, positively and strongly correlated (r=0.865 and r=0.868) with ABTS and DPPH.
© All Rights Reserved
Introduction
Phyllanthus niruri which known as "Dukung Anak" in Malaysia, is a small temperate herb widely distributed throughout different regions in the world such as India, South America and Malaysia (Rajeshkumar et al., 2002). According to Fang et al. (2008), Phyllanthus niruri which is one of the 500 temperate and tropical species of Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae) have been commonly used as folk medicine in most tropical countries. For the past decade, phenolic compounds have gained an intense focus of research due to their strong antioxidant activities and ability to scavenge free radicals (Chan etal., 2009). Studies conducted by Tan (2010) showed that phenolic compounds found naturally in Dukung Anak were suggested to be the major contributors to the antioxidant activities of the plant. Therefore, an optimum extraction method for phenolic compound is utmost important from the industrial point of view.
However, the extraction method of phenolic compounds differs from plant to plant and an ideal extraction method for a particular phenolic source has to be individually designed and optimized (Tan et al., 2011). According to Thoo et al. (2010), the extraction efficiency is influenced by various factors such as...