Chemical profiling and chemical standardization of Vitex negundo using 13C NMR

Chemical profiling and standardization of the defatted methanol extract of the leaves of Vitex negundo L. were carried out using 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis followed by chemometric analysis of the chemical shift data. Chemical profile was obtained using a k-means cluster profile and chemical standardization which was achieved using a multivariate control chart. The V. negundo samples were made up of four groups: the training set, submitted samples from production farms, commercial samples, such as tablets, capsules and teas, and experimental samples (samples which were allowed to degrade). Four groups were generated in k-means cluster, which generally corresponded to the four types of samples. The multivariate control chart identified samples whose quality exceeded the upper control limit, all of which were commercial samples and experimental samples. The samples were also analyzed by quantitative thin layer chromatography (qTLC) using agnuside as marker compound. Comparison of the qTLC results with the k-means cluster and the multivariate control chart showed poor correspondence. This means that a univariate analysis of a plant sample using a marker compound is useful only for quantification of the target compound. On the other hand, chemical profiling and standardization of medicinal plants should use a multivariate method

Chemical profiling of Philippine Moringa oleifera leaves

Chemical profiling can be applied to medicinal plant raw materials and commercial products to verify identity and to monitor quality. In this paper, we describe the chemical profiles of the volatile oil and methanol extract of Moringa oleifera plant samples collected from various regions of the Philippines. The volatile oil was collected by hydro-distillation and analysed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS). A total of 71 compounds were identified from all of the samples; however, the profile of compounds was very variable. Leaves and stalks produced different volatile profiles: benzyl aldehyde was present in all leaves, but was not detected in any of the stalks. The volatile oil from the stalks did not contain any terpenes. The methanol extract was defatted using hexane and analysed by thin layer chromatography (TLC) and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (13C NMR) spectroscopy. Quantitative TLC analysis was performed using afzelin and kaempferol as marker compounds. Afzelin was measured in the range 0.02-0.66%, but kaempferol was not detected in any of the samples. No trend was found for afzelin concentration. PCA analysis of the 13C NMR chemical profile indicates that Philippine moringa is highly variable