Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) Analysis of Ethanolic Extracts of Aerva lanata (L.)

Aim: To determine the phytochemical constituents present in the different parts of Aerva lanata using Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS).

Study Design: GC-MS analysis of bioactive compounds in different parts of A. lanata.

Place and Duration of Study: Post Graduate and Research Department of Biochemistry, Government Arts College (Autonomous), Kumbakonam and Department of Food Safety and Quality Testing, Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology, Thanjavur, Tamilnadu, India, between May 2011 to June 2012.

Methodology: 15 g of powdered plant material of leaf, flower and root were soaked with 60 mL of 95% ethanol for 24 hrs. After 24 hrs, the extract was filtered and the filtrate was concentrated to 1 mL by bubbling nitrogen gas into the solution. 2 µL of ethanolic extracts of leaf, flower and root of A. lanata was used for GC-MS analysis.

Results: The GC-MS analyses showed that the presence of four different phytocompounds in ethanolic extract of leaf of A. lanata. The highest peak area of 74.73% for isophytol was identified in leaf of A. lanata. The ethanolic flower extract of A. lanata showed that the presence of twelve different phytocompounds. Flower extract contains the highest amount of phytocompound was 6, 9,12 –octadecatrienoic acid, phenyl methyl ester (z,z,z)- with the peak area of 25%. The root extract of A. lanata showed that the presence of eight different bioactive compounds. The root of A. lanata showed more quantity of lanost-9 (11)-en-12-one with the highest peak area of 45.11%.

Conculsion: The present study confirmed that the presence of active compounds in different parts of A. lanata. In future, the isolation of above mentioned bioactive compounds from the different part of A. lanata would be useful to find out the novel drugs.