CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS VOL. 78, 2020 A publication of The Italian Association of Chemical Engineering Online at www.cetjournal.it Guest Editors: Jeng Shiun Lim, Nor Alafiza Yunus, Jiří Jaromír Klemeš Copyright © 2020, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. ISBN 978-88-95608-76-1; ISSN 2283-9216 Characterisation of Andrographolide in Andrographis Paniculata under Different Cultivation Conditions Azizul Mohd Suhaini a , Mohammad Hafiz Hawaji b , Siti Hajjar Che Man b , Norfhairna Baharulrazi b , Nor Alafiza Yunus a, * a Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, UTM Johor Bahru, Malaysia b Department of Bioprocess and Polymer Engineering, School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, UTM Johor Bahru, Malaysia alafiza@utm.my The trend in the practical uses of herbal medicine has gained increasing momentum in recent years. One of the trends includes the use of the andrographolide-containing Andrographis paniculata, which is a herb that is traditionally used as medicine. There are not many studies have investigated the cultivation of this plant. The aim of this study is to develop a standard of procedure for cultivating Andrographis paniculata using the fertigation technique. A total of 6 treatments in 2 growth medium compositions were studied; treatments T1, T3, and T5 in Cocopeat-RHA (70:30) and treatments T2, T4, and T6 in 100 % cocopeat. 3 magnesium compositions of 10 ppm (T1 and T2), 50 ppm (T3 and T4), and 70 ppm (T5 and T6) in nutrient solution were also studied. Treatments T1, T3, and T5 showed the potential for better growth quality with a maximum plant height of 32.51 cm, 32.51 cm, and 31.75 cm. The andrographolide content was comparable with controls 1 and 2 (0.67-0.70 μg/mL). In higher magnesium compositions of the nutrient solution, the dry herb yield of T5 and T6 decreased from 2.4 g to 1.6 g and 2.4 g to 1.2 g. The T3 and T5 treatments exhibited a higher yield than T4 and T6 based on a comparison of dry herb yield. The incorporated fertigation technique showed an on-par quantity of andrographolide yield to that of conventional techniques (0.67-0.70 μg/mL) although it showed an advantage of overcoming the cleanliness problem faced in this study. Hence, the T3 standard of procedure was deemed the best, as it gave better plant growth quality with a maximum plant height of 31.75 cm, a maximum number of leaves (141 total count), a good dry herb yield of 2.2 g, and better andrographolide content 0.7 μg/mL. The fertigation technique incorporated with the combined Cocopeat-RHA medium and 50 ppm magnesium composition in the nutrient solution is suggested for the cultivation of Andrographis paniculata. 1. Introduction Herbal medicine plays a significant role in maintaining human health and improving the quality of human life. A practice that has lasted throughout human history is the use of plants containing natural substances that can cure or lessen the symptoms of an illness. In recent years, the practical use of herbal medicines has gained momentum worldwide, reflected by an increasing number of scientific publications related to the therapeutic effect of these medicines, including randomised clinical trials (Wegener, 2017). This incident points towards the potential of commercially producing herbal medicine at a large scale for the global market. One of the native plants acknowledged to have enormous commercial potential is Andrographis paniculata. Locally called Hempedu Bumi in Malaysia, this plant has an extremely bitter taste. Andrographis paniculata has been used traditionally to treat the common cold, inflammatory diseases, bowel constipation, high blood pressure, diabetes, and diarrhoea (Chao and Lin, 2010). Recently, the plant was used to treat HIV, hepatitis, cancer, kidney disorders, and swine flu (H1N1) (Seniya et al., 2014). Andrographolide, a diterpene lactone, is the major bioactive compound in Andrographis paniculata, making up about 4 % of the dried whole plant, 0.8 %~1.2 % of the stem, and 0.5 %~6 % of the leaf extract (Cheung et al.,2001). The amount of andrographolide extracted from Andrographis paniculata is very low in individual DOI: 10.3303/CET2078022 Paper Received: 14/04/2019; Revised: 17/09/2019; Accepted: 02/10/2019 Please cite this article as: Mohd Suhaini A., Hawaji M.H., Che Man S.H., Baharulrazi N., Yunus N.A., 2020, Characterisation of Andrographolide in Andrographis Paniculata under Different Cultivation Conditions, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 78, 127-132 DOI:10.3303/CET2078022 127