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, 13ß,18-dihydroeurycomanol and 13ß,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.
Subject(s)
Eurycoma/chemistry , Phytochemicals/chemistry , Plant Extracts/chemistry , Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid , Eurycoma/metabolism , Liquid-Liquid Extraction , Phytochemicals/analysis , Phytochemicals/isolation & purification , Plant Extracts/analysis , Plant Extracts/isolation & purification , Plant Roots/chemistry , Plant Roots/metabolism , Quassins/analysis , Quassins/isolation & purification , Solid Phase Extraction , Solvents/chemistry , Tandem Mass Spectrometry , Water/chemistryABSTRACT
The objective of the study was to fractionate the crude extract of Eurycoma longifolia (E. longifolia) roots and identify the intense peaks using HPLC-PDA-MS/MS, UPLC-MS/MS and H-NMR. Column chromatography was used to fractionate the crude extract into individual fractions using six solvent systems ranged from ethyl acetate, methanol and water in increasing polarity. Two fractions with nearly pure and intense peaks were selected for compound identification. Chromenone (coumarin) and chromone derivatives were putatively identified, besides several previously reported quassinoid glycosides (eurycomanone derived glycoside, 2,3-dehydro-4α-hydroxylongilactone glucoside, eurycomanol glycoside and eurycomanol trimer) in the fraction 11 of 100% methanol. A newly reported compound, namely hydroxyl glyyunanprosapogenin D (838 g/mol) was proposed to be the compound detected in the fraction 11 of 50% ethyl acetate and 50% methanol. This is also the first study to report the identification of chromenones and chromones in E. longifolia extract.
