Phytochemical screening of plant extracts and GC-MS analysis of the n-hexane extracts of stems and roots of Catharanthus roseus growing in Bangladesh

Abstract

Phytochemical screening and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) methods were used to determine the phytochemical components of various extracts of stems and roots of Catharanthus roseus. Preliminary phytochemical screening of n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of stems and roots of Catharanthus roseus were carried out to identify the class of compounds present in each extract. The results exhibited that steroids, terpenoids, flavonoids and phenolic compounds were found in every extract of stems and roots. Alkaloids were also found in all extracts except n-hexane. But carbohydrates were absent in all extracts of stems and roots except methanol. The GC-MS analysis of the n-hexane extract of the stems and roots of Catharanthus roseus was done, which allowed the identification and quantification of 30 and 22 n-hexane soluble compounds present in the stems and roots, respectively. In this experiments, D:B-Friedo-B':A'-neogammacer-5-en-3β-ol (10.23%) and Ethyl palmitate (13.63%) identified with the highest concentration in the n-hexane extract of stems and roots, respectively.