Pressurised liquid extraction (PLE) of antioxidant compounds from bitter gourd fruits (Momordica charantia) in aqueous ethanolic solvent was investigated using response surface methodology at laboratory scale to understand key impact of extraction variables. Extraction efficiency was optimised by measuring the yield of extraction, total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), ferric reducing/ antioxidant power assay (FRAP) and radical scavenging activity (RSA). The optimal extraction conditions were reached at 80% ethanol concentration, 10-min extraction time and at 160°C. Under these extraction conditions, values of TPC (5.40 AE 0.30 g GAE per 100 g), TFC (1.50 AE 0.10 g QE per 100 g), FRAP (778.55 AE 10 lmol eq Fe (II) g À1 ), yield (178.50 AE 5.50 mg g À1 dc) and RSA (75.50 AE 4.50%) were achieved. Furthermore, statistical analysis revealed that antioxidative attributes of bitter gourd extract were strongly and positively correlated with extraction temperature and ethanol concentration rather than processing time. This study illustrated that PLE has the potential to extract antioxidant compounds from tropical fruit vegetables in an accelerated manner. Furthermore, influential parameters affecting the process could be optimised for further industrial intake. PLE of BG fruit antioxidative compounds Z. A. Syahariza et al. Subscripts: 1 = ethanol concentration; 2 = temperature; 3 = time. CV%, coefficient of variance [%]; Adequ. precision, adequate precision; P lf -value, probability of F value for the lack of fit; P m -value, probability of F value for the model. n.s. nonsignificant at P > 0.05. *P < 0.001, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.05. PLE of BG fruit antioxidative compounds Z. A. Syahariza et al. † Prediction interval; ‡ Values are averages of triplicate analysis AE SD of three individual runs.