Phytochemical Characteristic and Antimicrobial Activity of Coconut Coir Extract on Various Solvents

Abstract

Coconut coir is a by-product of the coconut that known contains phytochemical compounds and antimicrobial activities. This study aims to determine the phytochemical characteristics and the antimicrobial activity of coconut coir extracts. Completely Randomized Design was used in this study and the effect of maturity level of coconut coir and the solvent type were investigated. The maturity level of coconut coir consists of young and old coconut coir, and the solvent type were aquadest, ethanol, ethyl acetate and n-hexane. The phytochemicals characteristic, pH and antimicrobial activity of coconut coir extract were determined. The results of this study indicated that young coconut coir extract containing tannins, flavonoids and steroids. Meanwhile, the old coconut coir extract containing tannins, flavonoids, steroids and terpenoids. Both of young and old coconut coir extracts showed antimicrobial activity against S. cerevisiae, A. aceti and the microbes isolated from fermented sap. Old coconut coir extract showed antimicrobial activity stronger than young coconut coir extract. The old coconut coir extracted with aquadest show the highest antimicrobial activity against all microbial tested. This extract contains a total phenolic of 76.04 mg GAE/g, total flavonoid of 1.57 mg QE/g and total tannin of 522.95 mg TAE/g, respectively. In addition, based on the absorbance spectrum, it was confirmed that this extract contains tannins, flavonoids and steroids.