Published Paper Details:

Abstract Tagetes erecta is a crude drug known for its medicinal qualities. Enormous amounts of by products are synthesized in the medicinal usage of T. erecta flowers, including leaves that shall be used to develop novel eco-friendly phenolic extracts with extended value for the Pharma industry. To increase the phenol content in the leaf extracts, this study used a Box-Behnken design with Response Surface Methodology, considering three extraction methods (Soxhlet distillation, heat, and vacuum-assisted extraction), three cropping practices (without fertilizer, chemical fertilizer, and vermicompost), and three phenological stages (plants without buds, with buds, and in flower). Prodrugs from plants fertilized with vermicompost (Eisenia foetida, 10 t ha-1), collected during the blossoming stage and extracted via Soxhlet distillation, exhibited the highest phenol content (25.66 mg GAE/g). Further chemical characterization of the optimized extract (UV-Vis, UV-fluorescence, FTIR, GC-MS,HPLC)confirmedtheoccurrenceof polyphenols in the extract, including quercetin, chlorogenic, gallic, p-coumaric, 3-hydroxycinnamic, and caffeic acids. This underscores the significance of T. erecta leaf residues as a valuable source of bioactive molecules,associating the importance of integrating herbal practices and pharmaceutical extraction methods to enhance the phenolic content in leaf extracts from this species.