Chemometric tools to comprehend a recovery process for the bioactive ingredients from purple basil (Ocimum basilicum L.): Box-Behnken design-based optimization and principal component analysis.

Medicinal and aromatic plants are alternative products to synthetics because of their antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and antidiabetic effects. The objective of this study is to investigate the automated solvent extraction (ASE) process parameters for the extraction of bioactive-rich substances from purple basil (Ocimum basilicum L.). Process optimization in relation to total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and total anthocyanin content (TAC) was performed through a chemometric approach. The ASE system was designed, modelled and optimized by 3-factor and 3-level Box-Behnken design of Response Surface method (RSM). Antioxidant activity of the samples were measured by 2 different free radical scavenging activity assays (ABTS and DPPH). By using principal component analysis (PCA) to the dataset, the impact of interactions between the parameters was also evaluated according to their antioxidant activity, TPC, TFC and TAC levels. The optimal ASE conditions (0.3 g of purple basil, 19 min of immersion time and 66 % ethanol solution) provided the highest yields of TPC (98.888 mg-GAE/g-DM), TFC (27.033 mg-CE/g-DM) and TAC (11.556 mg-C3G/g-DM), which were verified by satisfactory validation findings (the error<2 %).