DefinePK

Abstract

Ethanol was used as a solvent to extract phenolic compounds from dried fresh tea leaves (Camellia sinensis L. Kuntze). The extraction was performed at temperature of 40, 50, and 60 oC which was maintained using a water bath. Folin-Ciocalteu’s reagent was used to determine the total phenolic content spectrophotometrically and gallic acid was used as the calibrant. The highest yield, which was 0.3347 g extract/g dry tea leaves, was obtained at extraction temperature 60 °C and extraction time 240 minutes. While the lowest yield, which was 0.2807 g extract/g dry tea, leaves, was obtained at temperature 40 oC and 15 minutes extraction time. The value of total phenolic content obtained in this work is between 0.21 - 0.25 mg GAE/mg extract. The study also demonstrated that the extraction of tea leaves with ethanol at relatively low temperature exhibit considerable efficient method to obtain extract with relatively high total phenolic content.