Isolation of Active Molecules from the Stems of Passion Vine

Abstract

Plants contain large number of phytochemical components which are bioactive and useful in the treatment of various disease conditions. But there is a need to investigate the constituents present in medicinal plants responsible for their pharmacological action. Preliminary phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of flavonoids, glycosides and steroids in the stems of Passiflora foetida L commonly known as Passion fruit. The present work aims at extraction, isolation & characterization of active constituents present in the stems of Passiflora foetida L. The ethanolic extract of stems was subjected to preliminary phytochemical tests. Extraction was carried by a Soxhlet extractor and the following compounds were isolated from different solvents. Three constituents were isolated, Kaempferol is a polyphenol isolated from from n- butanol extract. A flavonoid, Apigenin from ethyl acetate extract and Beta- Sitosterol a phytosterol was isolated from petroleum ether extract. All the components isolated were characterized by IR, 1HNMR, 13CNMR and mass spectroscopical data.