Manufacturing Process Development of Health Supplement Containing Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) Extract

Abstract

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), WH, is an aquatic plant that usually lives on the surface of lakes, marshes or rivers and often considered to be a weed that brings many negative impacts for the aquatic ecosystem. Previous research has proven the presence of antioxidant activity in the extract of this plant, which can be very beneficial for human health. However, to commercially utilize the extract of this plant, several steps must be thoroughly studied and prepared. This work was aimed at the development of manufacturing process to produce health product containing water hyacinth extract, where all aspects including the product safety, the availability of the main raw material, the proper formula of the product, the potential production capacity and the estimation of product quality in terms of the antioxidant activity were simulated. Market research conducted prior to the process development showed that tablet form was preferred by most respondents. The material balance calculation completed following the process development showed a potential production capacity of 812 tablets per hour by utilizing 30 kg/h of fresh WH leaves, with an expected antioxidant IC50 value of the product of 480.24 ppm, which should be very competitive when compared with other herbal supplements that are already commercially marketed.