Anthocyanin from Butterfly pea flowers (Clitoria ternatea) by Ultrasonic-assisted Extraction

The food industry in Indonesia is now a highly developed industry. To increase the attractiveness of consumers, producers make innovations including by adding additional coloring substances into food. There are two types of dyes that are most commonly used, namely synthetic dyes and natural dyes. Synthetic dyes are easy to get, cheap, many choices, but synthetic dye waste is very dangerous for the environment because it cannot be degraded naturally. Therefore, alternatives need to be found to save the environment by using natural dyes. One of the natural dyes can be obtained from the flowers of the plant Butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea), which contain anthocyanins as natural pigments in the form of blue and red pigments in acidic conditions. Several studies to extract anthocyanin from Butterfly pea have been conducted conventionally or maceration. Another alternative to extracting anthocyanin is the ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) method using water as a solvent has proven to be more efficient. The purpose of this study is to extract butterfly pea flowers by varying the extraction time, temperature and pH as well as the ratio of bait to solvent. The experiment was carried out in a pyrex beaker glass placed in an ultrasonic bath, with the experimental variables: extraction time 30-150 minutes, temperature 30-60 oC, pH 3-11, and the ratio of feed to solvent at 0.02-0.1. Extraction temperature is maintained below 80 oC. The anthocyanin color content was tested using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer with wavelength absorption of 500-700 nm. The results showed that the highest anthocyanin concentration was 1,425 g / L at 90 minutes, temperature 60 oC, pH 7, and the ratio of material to solvent was 0.02. From this research it shows that ultrasonic-assisted extraction(UAE) can increase yields higher than conventional extraction methods.