EKSTRAKSI SENYAWA BIOAKTIF THEAFLAVIN TEH OOLONG (CAMELLIA SINESIS) DENGAN AIR SEBAGAI GREEN SOLVENT

Theaflavin, a polyphenolic compounds found  in oolong tea and black tea, thought to have medicinal potency. Theaflavins and their derivatives such as theaflavin gallate have shown a broad spectrum of antiviral activity against several viruses, including influenza A, B and hepatitis C viruses. Previous research show that theaflavins could inhibit RdRp activity through blocking the active site in the catalytic pocket of RdRp in SARS‐CoV‐2, SARS‐CoV and MERS‐CoV.. This research aims to extract theaflavins in oolong tea with water solvent at a temperature of 100 o C, pressure > 1 atm and varied extraction times (10-60 minutes). The effect of oolong tea extraction time towards the  theaflavin content was observed. The results showed that with the longer extraction time, the theaflavin levels were reduced due to the degradation of thermal theaflavins into thearubigins. The model exponential equation obtained is y=14,91488 e -0,2631x + 0,11865, with the R 2 =0.99161. The best operating conditions was obtained at 10 minutes of extraction time, resulted in 1.19% of the total theaflavin content of oolong tea.