Comparative Analysis of Phytochemicals and Antioxidant Activity of Ethanol Extract of Centella asiatica Leaves and its Nanoparticle Form doi.org/10.26538/tjnpr/v5i3.9

Abstract

The high level of flavonoid compounds in pegagan (Centella asiatica) that has been found wildly in Indonesia is considered profitable. The aims of this study were to perform comparative analysis of phytochemical and antioxidant activity of pegagan extract (PE) and pegagan nanoparticle form (PN), as well as predict compounds having antioxidant activity through metabolite profiling. Centella asiatica leaves were extracted using 70% ethanol. Nanoparticle form was made from PE using ionic gelation method. Antioxidant activity was done using DPPH method, with ascorbic acid as positive control. The metabolite profiling process was done using liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The result from phytochemical test showed that there were 50 compounds identified in PE and 43 compounds identified in PN. The antioxidant activity in both samples was indicated by IC50 with 56.57 µg/mL for PE 44.67 µg/mL for PN. The findings showed that PN dosage form had better antioxidant activity than PE dosage form, proving that nanoparticle preparations from natural product had potential to be used in pharmaceutical dosage forms. The research concluded that compounds with known antioxidant properties were determined to be responsible for antioxidant activity in Centella asiatica leaves from both PE and PN.