Antifungal Activity of Red Dragon Peel (Hylocereus polyrhizus)

Abstract

Red dragon fruit (Hylocereus polyrhizus) is a species of plant that provides natural pigment which is betalain. Betalain is one of the pigments that give a natural color to flowers and fruits. Moreover, of betalain in red dragon fruit peel, there is a bioactive compound such as polyphenol and flavonoid with antioxidant and antifungal activities. This research was objected to extract pigments and other secondary metabolites from red dragon fruit peel using ethanol, methanol, dichloromethane, and ethyl acetate solvents, continued with determined potential activity against Candida albicans by using Resazurin Microtiter Assay (REMA) method. Furthermore, total phenolics compounds (TPC) and total flavonoid compounds (TFC) were determined from all the extracts. The results of antifungal activity showed various inhibition percentage against the fungal at 500 ppm. The ethyl acetate showed the highest activity among the extracts with 74.27% inhibition followed by pigment extracts (60.88%). Furthermore, from test TPC and TFC determination, the ethyl acetate possessed the highest amount with the value of 34.38 mg gallic acid equivalent/g fresh weight and 28.62 mg quercetin/g fresh weight, respectively. Therefore, to find the active compounds, multiple analysis is needed.