Extraction of flavone and gallic acid from leaves of centella asiatica

Centella asiatica is a small herbaceous annual plant of the family Apiaceae. It is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of various ailments and ayurvedic treatment for many diseases. The present study was to optimize the phenolic recovery from Centella asiatica by investigating the effects of type of solvent (acetone and ethyl acetate) and extraction time (180 and 240 minutes). Soxhlet extractor was used in this study. The amount of flavone extracted reached its maximum when extracted at 4 hours with the highest concentration was 0.022 ± 0.003 mg/mL by using ethyl acetate while for the gallic acid, it also reached its maximum at 4 hours with the greater concentration was 4.230 ± 0.246 mg/mL by using acetone. High Performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to identify and quantify the active compounds, namely flavone and gallic acid. The data were analysed using ANOVA as well as factorial design.