Impact of commercial cellulase enzyme on the quality of Clinacanthus nutans extracts

Abstract

The use of enzymes such as cellulase and pectinase to aid in the fruit and vegetable juice extraction is a common practice. However, this practice is very limited in the production of juice or extract from green leaves. This study was carried out to evaluate the impact of commercial cellulase enzyme on the volume yield recovery, total chlorophyll and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity of the Clinacanthus nutans leaves and stem. Leaves extract showed higher volume yield recovery, total chlorophyll content and DPPH scavenging activities (0.72±0.02 mL, 50.10±3.96 mg/L and 70% respectively) compared to the stem extract (0.60 ± 0.1 mL, 39.70 ± 4.73 mg/L and 25% respectively). It was also found that the cellulase enzyme concentrations were proportional to the volume yield recovery, and DPPH scavenging activity of the C. nutans extract over time. However, there was no significant effect of enzyme concentration on the total chlorophyll content. The results obtained can be considered very satisfactory and cellulase enzyme can be considered to be used in the aqueous extraction of C. nutans to aid the extraction process in order to increase the volume yield recovery, total chlorophyll content and DPPH scavenging activities.