Extraction of catechin from areca catechu seeds using accelerated water extraction

Abstract

Areca catechu is part of the Arecaceae (Palmae) family which locally known as “Buah Pinang” in Malaysia. Accelerated Water Extraction (AWE), a green extraction technique was applied on the extraction of catechin from areca catechu seeds. This technique was selected due to the increasing demand for green product and eco-friendly process. The research was carried out to identify the optimum condition for high quality production of catechin in AWE process followed with kinetic study. The extraction parameters studied were temperature (120, 140 and 160oC), static time (5, 10 and 15 minutes), and static cycle (1, 2 and 3). Catechin compound was analyzed by using Liquid Chromatography-Time of Flight-Mass Spectrometry (LC-TOF-MS). Determination of the particle size was conducted within the range of 500 µm< dp < 750 µm; 250 µm< dp < 500 µm; 125 µm< dp < 250 µm; 75 µm< dp < 125 µm at extraction temperature of 140oC, static time of 10 minutes and 1 cycle. The best particle size was identified at 500 µm< dp < 750 µm which produced high content of the catechin yield with 0.0515 mg of catechin/g of areca catechu. The maximum of overall extracted yield was obtained at the temperature of 140oC, 15 minutes of extraction time and 3 cycles with 390.00 mg of oil yield/g of areca catechu. Meanwhile, the best extraction parameters were identified at extraction temperature of 140ºC, 10 minutes of static extraction time and 3 cycles with the maximum catechin yield of 0.0716 mg of extracted catechin/g areca catechu. The maximum extraction rate coefficient was attained at temperature of 140oC and 3 cycles with 9.1612 L/g·min. The optimal condition for the extraction of catechin obtained using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) were at temperature of 138.5oC, 12 minutes of extraction time and 3 cycles. Under the optimal condition, the predicted response and the experimental value obtained were 0.0716 mg of extracted catechin/g areca catechu and 0.0759 mg of extracted catechin/g areca catechu, respectively. This finding is very important and useful for industrial processing of natural plant to produce higher quality products