Extraction of Gallic Acid and Flavone from Leaves of Vernonia cinerea

Vernonia species are easily found in tropical and subtropical countries and widely used in traditional medicine for the treatment of malaria, stomach pain, and other infectious diseases. Vernonia cinerea (Asteraceae) contains many phenolic compounds that have shown some biological activities such as antibacterial, antioxidant, analgesic and others. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of extraction times (3, 4 and 5 hour) and extraction solvents (ethyl acetate, ethanol and acetone) on the extraction yields from leaves of Vernonia cinerea, focusing on gallic acid and flavone as the compounds of interest. These phenolic compounds were extracted using soxhlet extraction and analysed by using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The highest yield of gallic acid was obtained at 3 hours of extraction time using ethanol as solvent while the highest yield of flavone extract using ethyl acetate at 5 hours extraction time. The results showed that acetone was the most efficient solvent compared to ethanol and ethyl acetate for extraction of gallic acid. Ethanol and ethyl acetate were found to be more efficient than acetone for the extraction of flavone from Vernonia cinerea as the concentration increased when the extraction time increased.