Abstract
Phytochemicals in the water extract of Eurycoma longofolia roots were identified using both solid-liquid and liquid-liquid extraction based fractionation techniques. A reversed phase C18 solid phase extraction (SPE) was used as solid-liquid extraction, whereas solvent partition was applied as liquid-liquid extraction. Total saponin was increased after fractionation. A few known quassinoids; eurycomanone, 13a(21)-epoxyeurycomanone, pasakbumin D, 13β,18-dihydroeurycomanol and 13β,21-dihydroxyeurycomanol were identified from the 40% and 60% methanol fractions of SPE. Solvent partition extract using ethyl acetate was found to have the highest saponin content compared to butanol and chloroform fractions. Subsequent acetone precipitation of the organic fractions recovered a formylated hexose trimer and other saccharide-containing compounds. Ethyl acetate effectively recovered saponins from E. longofolia water extract using liquid-liquid extraction followed by acetone precipitation.
Highlights
Natural products are very complex in chemical composition
Physta which is consisted of a complex mixture of phytochemicals was extracted from the raw material of E. longifolia roots
The results revealed that they were mostly from the group of quassinoids which are known as degraded triterpenes with all-chair cyclic and highly oxygenated squalene
Summary
Natural products are very complex in chemical composition. A wide range of phytochemicals with diverse properties tends to complicate the study of profiling. There were phenolics and alkaloids detected from the plant roots.[12,13] total saponin has been estimated to be > 40% in the plant extract according to the Malaysian Standard, MS 2409:2011,14 the identification of individual saponins is relatively limited in literature This could be due to the complexity of the chemical structure of saponins and the limitations of analytical instrumentation. Previous studies reported that those solvents were suitable to partition saponins from ethanolic plant extracts, but were yet to be applied in SPE based fractionation.[15] It is known that saponins possess a wide range of polarity and solubility depending on the structural diversity of aglycone and sugar moieties. Saponins are reported to be abundant in plant roots rather than plant leaves and flowers.[15,16] it is important to investigate phytochemicals in the water extract of E. longifolia roots since water extract is widely consumed in the form of decoction with ethnopharmacological importance
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