Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Herbal Plants for Safe and Halal Enriched Extracts

Abstract

In compliance with the halal requirement, herbal processing to produce health beneficial products requires safe and food grade extraction protocols. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) technique has been known to produce quality extracts from plants while minimizing the use of organic solvents. In this study, the quality of herbal extracts in terms of component contents and toxicity effects were determined. Three different herbal plants (Orthosiphon stamineus, Phyllantus niruri and Labisia pumila) were investigated using supercritical CO2 with food- grade cosolvents. The bioactive compounds in the extracts were analyzed and quantified using high performance liquid chromatography. The component contents (g/ g extract) were found to be: O. stamineus (4.69% RA, 0.09% TMF, 0.41% SEN, 0.97% EUP), P. niruri (0.37% GA, 2.95% CO, 5.10% EA) and L. pumila (0.20% GA, 0.22% MG, 1.05% CA). These results showed comparable or better quality extracts than the previously reported findings. The toxicity test on the zebrafish embryos also showed no toxicity effects by the extracts. Thus, the extraction technique has been proven to be safe for the halal production of enriched extracts from herbal plants.