Ultrasonic Extraction of Betara’s Areca Nuts’ Antioxidants

Abstract

Betara's areca nuts are high quality areca nuts from Betara, Tanjung Jabung Barat, Jambi, Indonesia. Areca contains many nutrients and active compounds such as flavonoids, phenolics, catechin, quercetin, and a small percentage of tannins, beneficial for natural antioxidants. The natural antioxidants can be separated through Ultrasonic Assisted Extraction or UAE technique. The advantages of the UAE technique are that it uses low temperature, reduces solvent use, and is costeffective and quick. The ultrasonic waves in the UAE technique will accelerate the penetration of the liquid into the cell membrane wall so that the immediate release of active compounds. This study aims to determine the effect of excitation time on antioxidant activity in extracting antioxidants using the UAE method. The result showed that increasing excitation time increased the water content from 78% to 89% and increased the yield from 6.5% to 7.1%. The antioxidant activity (IC50) ranged from 4.9 to 3.5 ppm (db), suggesting that the areca nuts have a very high antioxidant activity.