Optimisation of Extraction Conditions of Watermelon (

\nWatermelon white rind is considered the most underutilised fruit resource as it is usually discarded as waste due to its unappealing flavour. Utilising watermelon rind by generating new products could decrease the amount of biological waste, thus recognising the rind’s potential economic value in various industries, mainly in the food and cosmeceutical industries. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the optimum conditions for extracting watermelon rind. The watermelon rind sample was dried using an oven before extracting the rind. Four factors were used: time, solvent concentration, solid-to-solvent ratio and drying time. These factors were set in Design-Expert version 13 to get the optimum conditions for the best extraction yield. The response surface methodology reveals that four conditions which are 30 mins extraction time, 90 % ethanol concentration, 40 % solvent-to-solid ratio, and 45 hrs sample drying time, showed maximum extract yield at 22 % when extracted using a sonication technique.\n