Comparison of maceration and soxhletation method for flavonoid production from Spirulina platensis as a sunscreen's raw material

Spirulina platensis is a blue-green microalgae (cyanobacteria) with high potential in the fields of health, cosmetics and food. Nowadays, blue-green algae are widely used as food supplements, but the use in the cosmetics field is still lacking. One of the compounds produced by Spirulina platensis is Flavonoid. Flavonoid is rarely used as cosmetics, but often used as food due to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiallergic properties. However, when flavonoid is used on skin, it can absorb ultraviolet light which can be used as sunscreen. In this research, flavonoid extraction from Spirulina platensis was carried out with two methods, soxhletation and maceration. These two methods are chosen based on better guarantee of the acquisition of flavonoids, eventhough they are quite simple. The solvent used to extract flavonoid is ethanol. The quantitative analysis was carried out with a spectrophotometer to measure the flavonoid content and the Sun Protection Factor (SPF) level. The highest yield extract of flavonoid were obtained by the soxhletation method with a yield value of 5.26%. The value of Total Flavonoid Content obtained from soxhletation methods has higher results, that is 0.65 % (g quercetin/g biomass). The highest SPF value was obtained by the soxhletation method with the value 6.47.