My Lengkuas

 

    Lengkuas (Alpinia galanga) is one of the Zingiberaceae family. Based on literature study, it is known that the rhizomes contained phenolic compounds and showed various biological activities which one of them is antioxidant. The purposes of this study were to isolate the phenolic compounds from rhizomes and to know the antioxidant activity of ethyl acetate extract and methanol extract of  these rhizomes. Isolation of phenolic compounds was done by maceration method using various solvents equal n-hexane, ethyl acetate and then methanol. Ethyl acetate extracts obtained were separated using vacuum liquid chromatography followed by gravity column chromatography to get fractions of major components. Fraction obtained from the last separation was tested by FeCl₃ 1%. This test showed that these fractions contained phenolic compounds. This result was supported by spectrum obtained from TLC-Scanner. Test of antioxidant activity using DPPH reagent showed that ethyl acetate extracts and methanol extracts were active as an antioxidant at a concentration of 2.5 ppm to 125 ppm.