Antioxidant Activity and Physicochemical Properties of Nicolaia Speciosa Flower Extract

Flower of Nicolaia speciosa contain some bioactive compounds which are potential as natural antioxidant agent. N. speciosa flowers contains bioactive compounds such as polyphenols, alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids, saponins and essential oils. Unfortunately, extract of N. speciosa flower is very volatile and not stable upon exposures to light and oxygen. Therefore the extract should be modified into nanoencapsulan powder. This research aimed 1) to study the best encapsulant proportion of gelatin-cyclodextrin (w/w) and N. speciosa flower extract proportion that affected into antioxidant activity. The results showed that the proportion of encapsulan gelatin-cyclodextrin (w/w) 1:1 (w/w), the proportion of extract:encapsulan 1:1 (w/w), with nanoencapsulating method resulted the highest a total phenolic 635.8 mg/100 g and the highest antioxidant activity that is 59.34%.