PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING, TLC PROFILE AND 1H NMR ANALYSIS OF Passiflora foetida EXTRACTS

Abstract

Passiflora foetida also known as red fruits passionflower is widely found in Malaysia. Previous studies on this plant reported its therapeutic properties such as anticancer, antidiabetic, anti-hyperpigmentation, antioxidant, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-acetylcholinesterase, and antimicrobial activities. In this study, different parts of the plant (aerial, stem, leaf and fruit) were used for the phytochemical screening such as alkaloid, flavonoid, terpenoid and saponin tests. The aerial, leaf and stem parts show positive results in all tests, however, there are slightly different in color intensity of each test. The fruit, except for terpenoid, shows positive results in alkaloid, flavonoid and saponin tests. Then, thin layer chromatography (TLC) profile was carried out in various solvent systems including chloroform/methanol (9:1) solvent system and ethylacetate/hexane (1:9). The TLC profile shows that chloroform/methanol (9:1) solvent system give better separation of compounds as compared to ethylacetate/hexane (1:9) solvent system. There are characteristic spots found on the TLC plate that possibly attributed to the presence of flavonoids, steroids, and terpenoids. Moreover, the fresh aerial part extract of P. foetida was analyzed using 1H-NMR and found some signals that indicated the presence of phenolic and flavonoid compounds in the extract. This study can act as a preliminary study that provides the information on the metabolite profile of different parts of P. foetida and might be useful for the future study.