Adzhar et al. / Malaysian Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences Vol. 15, No. 5 (2019) 739-742 7 39 Optimization of the water extraction process on the total phenolic content from Labisia pumila Nurul Fazila Faidzul Adzhar a , Zaheda Mohamad Azam a , Nur Fashya Musa a , Norliza Abd Latiff a , Harisun Yaakub b , Muhammad Helmi Nadri a , Nor Zalina Othman a,* a Innovation Centre in Agritechnology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 84600 Muar, Johor, Malaysia b Institute Bioproduct Development, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia * Corresponding author: norzalina@utm.my Article history Received 22 October 2018 Revised 19 December 2018 Accepted 27 February 2019 Published Online 1 October 2019 Graphical abstract Abstract Labisia pumila is one of the most widely used medicinal herbs among women in Southeast Asia.There is an increasing demand force for this herb in pharmaceutical and food industries. Most of these products are registered without knowing the level of bioactivity in the extracts and not in standardised form. Non-standardized extract is perceived as a low-quality herbal product, hence lowering its market value. Therefore, this study aimed to standardize the optimal water extraction conditions for maximum total phenolic content (TPC) of L. pumila. In this study, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the extraction process of TPC from L. pumila. Dried whole plant of L. pumila was extracted in water as solvent at different temperatures, times, and solid to water ratios that have been identified to be significantly affecting the recovery of TPC. A Box- Behnken design was used to investigate the effects of three independent variables that were coded at three levels consisted of 30 experimental points using decoction method. A second-order polynomial model was used for predicting the response. Regression analysis showed that more than 91.99 % of the variation was explained by the models. Results identified temperature as the most significant (p<0.05) factor affecting the TPC. The optimal conditions obtained from RSM were 60 ᴼ C for the temperature, 2.67 hours for the extraction time and 1:10 for the solid to water ratio. Under these optimal conditions, the response value of the experimental values agreed with the predicted value of TPC. In conclusion, the present study has succesfully standardized optimal temperature, time and solid-water ratio of L. pumila water extraction process for high TPC. Keywords: Total phenolic content, Labicia pumila, water extract, optimization, standardization © 2019 Penerbit UTM Press. All rights reserved INTRODUCTION L. pumila or Kacip Fatimah is a well-known wild forest herb belongs to Myrsinaceae family. It is widely inhabited throughout lowland and hill forest of Peninsular Malaysia at an altitude between 300 and 700 m. This economical and medicinal important herb consists of three varieties including var. alata, var. pumila and var. lanceolata [1]. The plant decoction has been used since ancient by women of Malay Archipelago to ease child birth delivery, improve post-partum health and promote the health of female reproductive system [2,3]. The usage of this herb in traditional medicine is supported, at least a part, by accumulating scientific evidence. L. pumila extract exhibits wide range bioactivities including anti- inflammatory [4], anti-proliferation [5], anti-oxidant [6,7] and anti- photoaging [8] . Clinical data reported that L. pumila can improve cardiovascular risk factor (total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol) in pre- and post-menopausal women which may help in maintaining cardiovascular health [9]. The presence of phenolics and flavonoids are believed to be responsible for such wide- spectrum health-benefits properties of herbs [10]. Therefore, it is important to maximize the recovery of phenolics and flavonoids during extraction process. Traditionally, decoction of L. pumila has been prepared using water [11]. Based on the previous studies by Choi et al. [12], Fazliana et al.[13], Pihie et al.[14] and Mukrish et al. [15], only three main factors that have been reported to affect the extraction process when water is used as solvent, which are temperature of extration, process duration of extraction (time) and solid to solvent ratio. The ratio of plant quantity to solvent is one-part plant to six parts of solvent, one-part plant to eight parts of solvent and one-part plant to ten parts of solvent [12,13]. These critical components should be considered when a high solid to solvent ratio increases the concentration gradient and hence, increases the rate of diffusion of bioactive compounds to the solvent [16]. The temperature and time of extraction are important in minimizing energy and cost of the extraction process in order to extract most of the desired bioactive compounds. The standardization of extraction temperature and time is crucial as insufficient time means incomplete extraction or overheated causes deteriaration of bioactive compounds [17,18]. Extraction process was carried out for whole plant (leaves, stem and roots) of L. pumila plant material at three different temperatures of 60 o C, 80 o C and 100 o C with continuous stirring for 2, 3 and 4 hours [13,14,15]. Therefore, the present study was designed to optimize temperature, time and solid-solvent ratio for obtaining the highest total phenolic RESEARCH ARTICLE