Terpene alcohol and phytosterol from the root of the Commelina Diffusa Burm. F

Abstract

Commelina diffusa Burm. f. (C. diffusa) is the richest bio-resource of drugs of traditional systems of medicine, modern medicines, nutraceuticals, food supplements, folk medicines, pharmaceutical intermediates and chemical entities for synthetic drugs. This study aims to isolate and characterize compounds from the methanol extract of the plant. Healthy roots of the plant were collected, chopped into small pieces, air-dried under a shade, segregated, pulverized, extracted with methanol using maceration technique and concentrated to obtain the plant extract. The results from the phytochemical screening of the plant extract revealed the presence of higher amount of steroids, terpenoids, alkaloids, phenolic compounds, tannins, saponins, amino acid and phytosteroids. While column chromatography was used for the isolation and purification of the pure compound. Silica gel chromatographic separation of the CH3OH extract gave stigmasterol and 3, 7, 11, 15-Tetramethyl-2-hexadecen-1-ol. A complete characterization of the isolated compound was done with the help of (UV-Vis, IR, 1D NMR) spectroscopic techniques.