Total Phenolic, Flavonoid and Saponin Contents, and GC-MS Profile of the Methanolic Extract of Leaves of Crossopteryx Febrifuga

Abstract

The leaves of Crossopteryx febrifuga have been shown traditional to possess medicinal properties and are used for the treatment of malaria and inflammatory disorders. The objective of this study is to evaluate the phytochemical profile of the leaves of Crossopteryx febrifuga using gas chromatography-mass spectrometric technique. The leaves were extracted with n-hexane and methanol separately and subjected to phytochemical screening and quantification
techniques. The methanol extract was partitioned using three solvents (n-hexane, ethyl acetate and n-butanol). The n-butanol fraction was further partitioned using column chromatography and gave four sub-fractions which were subjected to gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis. Phytochemical analysis of the extracts revealed presence of terpenoids, flavonoids, saponins and steroids. The quantification of three classes of phytochemicals identified gave total phenolic, flavonoid and saponin contents obtained were 44.40 ± 0.11 mg Gallic acid equivalent/g extract, 10.50 ±0.12 mg quercetin equivalent/g extract and 91.30 ±0.17 mg Ginsenoside Rb 1 equivalent/ g extract respectively. The gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis of the Sub-Fractions (SF) of n-butanol showed presence of 25, 32, 28 and 4 compounds in SF1, SF2, SF3 and SF4 respectively. Among the identified compounds the prominent ones were hexadecanoic acid methyl ester; diisooctyl phthalate; trans-13-octadecenoic acid methyl ester; 2,4-bis(1,2-dimethylethyl) phenol and [R-(Z)] 9-octadecenoic acid,12-hydroxymethyl ester. These compounds make up about 52% of the identified phytochemicals in the n-butanolic fraction. The presence of these phytochemicals could be responsible for its medicinal properties.