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ABSTRACT
Picralima nitida is a very versatile fruit utilized for the treatment of several ailments in traditional medicine applications. The phytochemicals and bioactive present have been shown to have different pharmacological activities on humans. The extraction of bioactive compounds have been observed to be affected by several parameters such as extraction time, temperature and particle size. A D-Optimal design was used to study the effect of these process parameters on the yield of bioactive compounds from Picralima nitida. A two-factor interaction model was obtained to predict the yield of bioactive compounds as a function of temperature, particle size and extraction time. The D-Optimal model returned an R2 value of 0.91 and a p-value<0.0001 indicating a good fit for our design data. The optimization studies showed an optimal extraction condition of 90oC, 50 minutes and particle size to be an insignificant parameter for the extraction process. The optimized condition predicted a yield of 31.45%. An analysis of the bioactive compounds at 90 oC and 84 oC was done using a GCCMS unit and showed that bioactive compounds such as Dodecanoic acid,1,2,3-propanetriyl ester and Acetamide favour high extraction temperatures (90 oC), 42.97% and 5.80% opposed to 15.58% at 84oC. Contrary to that, degradation of Octadecanoic acid was observed, 7.82% at 84 oC and 6.11% at 90oC.
