Introduction: Moringa oleifera Lam. is a miracle tree that has been widely utilised in folklore medicine due to its immense amount of phenolic constituents that could treat various ailments. Different techniques have been implemented to extract the phenolic but the parameters may not be optimised to further enhance the amount of phenolic extracted. Thus, the work aimed to enhance phenolic content and antioxidant activity of M. oleifera through RSM methodology, which is rapid and convenience. Methods: At first, antioxidant activity of different parts of M. oleifera (leaves, stem, pod and seed) were investigated. The plant part with the highest antioxidant activity was selected for the optimisation of extraction condition using RSM. In RSM, temperature (XA), extraction time (XB) and solid-liquid ratio (XC) were employed to study the effects on yield, total phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidant activity. Then, the optimum extraction condition obtained via RSM was utilised in LC-MS and HPLC analysis to determine the potential bioactive constituents. Results: The leaves of M. oleifera displayed the highest antioxidant activity as compared to other plant parts. The optimum extraction condition obtained for the leaves extract was: temperature (XA): 82°C, extraction time (XB): 48 min and solid-liquid ratio (XC): 1:30 g/mL (w/v). Meanwhile, LC-MS revealed the presence of gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, quercetin, kaempferol and 3-O-glucoside kaempferol. HPLC analysis detected six compounds; gallic acid, epicatechin gallate, chlorogenic acid, myricetin, quercetin and kaempferol. Conclusion: The optimisation are promising to improve yield and antioxidant activity in M. oleifera as compared to non-conventional extractions.

Introduction: There are numerous studies on the therapeutic properties of Artocarpus heterophyllus. However, studies on the aqueous extraction of A. heterophyllus leaves are limited. This present study was conducted to optimize the extraction conditions of A. heterophyllus leaves to yield the highest phenolic, flavonoids and antioxidant contents. Methods: Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to obtain a higher phenolic extraction parameter(s) of A. heterophyllus leaves using Central Composite Design (CCD). The antioxidant activity was then determined via ABTS (2,29-azinobis (3 ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)) and DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) assay and analysis of the individual phenolics was performed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Results: The optimum extraction conditions with higher phenolics content and antioxidant activity was achieved at 81°C, 100 min and 40 mL/g sample with a good desirability value of 0.87. Under these optimized parameters, total phenolics and flavonoids were 174.48 ± 4.05 mg GAE/g sample and 21.44 ± 0.05 mg RE/g sample, respectively. Meanwhile, antioxidant activity via ABTS and DPPH assays were 90.88% ± 0.09 and 87.22% ± 0.62, respectively. Finally, under optimal extraction conditions revealed 4 compounds identified as chlorogenic acid, quercetin, rutin and kaempferol. Conclusion: The optimisation are promising to improve phenolic yield and antioxidant activity in A. heterophyllus leaves. It also proved that A. heterophyllus leaves can be used as an alternative natural antioxidant especially in medicinal applications since all identified compound possess significant biological activities for human health.