Extraction of Morinda Citrifolia by Subcritical Water: Effect of Temperature on Antioxidant and Total Phenolic Activity

Introduction: Oxidative stress occurs when there is a lack of balance between the generation of free radicals and their elimination from the body, which leads to various harmful effects including cell damage and other metabolic disorder. There is a rise in demand of natural drugs being used in medicine and giving better results compared to other conventional drugs. It is possible to encapsulate bioactive compounds from natural medicinal plants into nanoparticles which acts as drug delivery carriers, to get enhanced therapeutic effects. Materials and methods: This research focuses on the effect of temperature on the antioxidant and phenolic content of Morinda citrifolia, which was extracted using subcritical water extraction (SWE) by applying three different extraction temperature: 100, 120 and 140°C. The extracts were subjected to High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) to analyse the bioactive compounds. Total Phenolic Content (TPC) and antioxidant assay was carried out to find out the phenolic content and antioxidant activity respectively. Results: The results showed that the highest extraction yield for SWE was found with extraction temperature 120°C and it was seen that increased temperature had a significant effect as it increased its phenolic content and antioxidant free radical scavenging activity. The HPLC results also showed higher yield of scopoletin and rutin from sample extracted with 140°C. Conclusion: Thus, this study showed that sample of M.citrifolia which was extracted at 140°C, had the highest scopoletin and rutin content and highest phenolic content compared to the other samples.