EVALUATING THE ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench ETHANOL EXTRACT

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to extract the yield of Echinacea purpurea at the SOHO Center of Excellence in Herbal Research Sukabumi on a laboratory scale and determine the antioxidant effect. This plant is known to grow in Europe before being cultivated in Sukabumi, Indonesia. Additionally, the specimen contains compounds with antioxidant functionalities, estimated to be useful in cell protection from oxidative stress. This property is attributed to the presence of alkamide compounds. In this research, Simplicia was extracted using 2 different methods, and those generated by DPPH yielded the best chicoric acid value and were further evaluated for antioxidant activities. The results showed the best results in samples isolated with maceration at 70℃ temperature, stirred for 1.5 hours, compared to those heated at 55℃. Consequently, the yield obtained using this technique was 23.24 grams which had 4.36% chicoric acid content and total phenol of 13.82%. The thick Echinacea purpurea extract demonstrated the best IC50 value of 92.08 µg/mL, which was better than the other samples. This research suggests a need to improve the extraction process as an attempt to achieve optimal results.