Pressurized Hot Water Extraction and Capillary Electrophoresis for Green and Fast Analysis of Useful Metabolites in Plants.

Kurt Debruille,Jason A Smith,Joselito P Quirino

doi:10.3390/molecules24132349

Kurt Debruille, Jason A Smith + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24132349

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Abstract

The search for useful compounds from plants is an important research area. Traditional screening that involves isolation and identification/quantitation is tedious, time consuming, and generates a significant amount of chemical waste. Here, we present a simple, fast, and green strategy to assess ≥0.1% wt/wt quantities of useful compounds in plants/spices using pressurized hot water extraction using a household espresso machine followed by chemical analysis using capillary electrophoresis. Three demonstrations with polygodial, cinnamaldehyde, coumarin, and shikimic acid as target metabolites are shown. Direct analysis of extracts was by the developed micellar electrokinetic chromatography and capillary zone electrophoresis methods. The approach, which can be implemented in less developed countries, can process many samples within a day, much faster than traditional techniques that would normally take at least a day. Finally, 0.8–1.1% wt/wt levels of shikimic acid were found in Tasmanian-pepperberry and Tasmanian-fuschia leaves via the approach.

Highlights

Many useful compounds that benefit society are sourced from plants [1,2]
After an ample amount of purified sample is recovered, identification is by using advanced instrumental techniques including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mass spectrometry (MS), and gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC) with known standards
Polygodial is a neutral and hydrophobic sesquiterpene dialdehyde that is believed to be responsible for the pungent taste of several plants, including Tasmannia lanceolata

Summary

Introduction

They are plant metabolites such as coumarin [3], curcumin [4], morphine [5], polygodial [6,7], and shikimic acid [8] They are often used in the food and pharmaceutical industries, e.g., for their flavour, medicinal and biological properties. The screening of these compounds from new plant sources normally requires their isolation, which is performed using a battery of traditional techniques such as solvent extraction, crystallization, and chromatography [9,10]. Analysis of targeted metabolites in plant extracts can be directly performed using NMR techniques [11,12,13], but NMR instrumentation is not accessible, especially in developing countries

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