Abstract
Ficus septica Burm. F (Awar-awar) in Indonesian herbal medicine traditionally used for the treatment of various disease. Previous studies indicated that the F. septica leaves contained phenantroindolizidine alkaloids with anticancer activity. Fractionation of the ethanol extract of F. septica leaves using n-hexane was able to separate chlorophylls and other inert non–polar constituents from the extract. This fractionation process can be optimized using ultrasonic-assisted fractionation to yield n-hexane insoluble fraction (HIF) that is rich in alkaloids. This study aimed to produce HIF from the ethanol extract of F. septica leaves by using optimized ultrasonic-assisted fractionation with n-hexane as a solvent and full factorial as experimental design. Ficus septica leaves were macerated in ethanol (60%) and the extract was used for the ultrasonic-assisted fractionation process. The duration of fractionation (5-30 minutes), the extract : n-hexane ratios (1:0.1 - 1:1.66 ml/ml), and the ultrasonic power (21-106 Wrms) were optimized to determine the optimal condition for each variable. These optimal variables were used for the production of HIF from the extract by using full factorial design in the ultrasonic-assisted fractionation process. The total alkaloid content was measured using spectrophotometry and was used as parameter for the optimization process. We found that the optimal condition for the fractionation process based on each single variable optimization were 5 minutes of the fractionation duration, 66-70Wrms of the ultrasonic power, and 1:0.7 - 1:0.8 of the extract : n-hexane ratio. By using these optimized variables, the ultrasonic-assisted fractionation using full factorial design yielded up to 0.035% total alkaloid content which is almost double from those in the extract (0.019%). This study provided a basic experimental model for the production of alkaloid-enriched HIF from F. septica leaves in the industrial or pilot scale, and might contribute to the development of Indonesian herbal medicine products from natural resources.
Highlights
Cancer is still one of the deadliest diseases in the world because its difficulty to cure and its rapid invasion in the human body
This study aimed to produce the alkaloid-enriched fraction (HIF) from the ethanol extract of F. septica leaves using an ultrasonicassisted fractionation with a full factorial design
The fractionation duration that was used for the full factorial design was 5 minutes because 5 minutes of ultrasonic-assisted fractionation produced the highest amount of alkalaid content in the hexane insoluble fraction (HIF)
Summary
Cancer is still one of the deadliest diseases in the world because its difficulty to cure and its rapid invasion in the human body. Several studies have shown that administering complementary products along with the chemotherapy agents might work synergically or increasing therapeutic efficacy and improving patient quality of life [2,3,4]. Previous studies demonstrated that the ethanol extracts of F. septica leaves and its fractions showed cytotoxic activity on cancer cells in vivo and in vitro [8, 9], and increased cancer cells sensitivity upon the treatment with the chemotherapy agent, doxorubicin [10,11,12]. We optimized the production of the HIF from the ethanol extract of F. septica leaves by using ultrasonic-assisted fractionation method with a full factorial design. The effects of each single variable (solvent ratio, fractionation duration, and mechanical strength) were investigated, and the full factorial design of fractionation was employed to investigate the variables yielding the highest alkaloid content
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