Journal Article

Isolation and Characterisation of Lupeol from Methanolic Extract of Trema Guineensis Leaves

Abstract

T. guineensis is a medicinal plant with diverse phytochemical constituents and therapeutic properties. Lupeol was isolated by subjecting the T. guineensis methanolic extract to column chromatography by gradient elution using a solvent mixture of hexane and ethyl acetate. The structure of the isolated compound was established using FTIR, ¹H and ¹³C-NMR. FTIR result revealed a very intense broad absorption frequency peak at 3295.0 cm-1 which is typical of O-H bond stretch of hydroxyl group, 1733.2 cm-1 for C=C (symmetric stretch), (2929.7 and 2855.1) cm-1 were assigned to aliphatic C-H stretch in CH₂ and CH₃. Olefinic protons and 7 methyl protons were observed in ¹H-NMR result. ¹³C-NMR showed 30 carbon signals, a carbon bonded to OH group at C-3 position, olefinic carbons of exocyclic double bond at C-20 and C-29. These results confirm that the isolated compound was lupeol, and the data were further verified by comparison with the literature. The isolate compound is a potential source of antioxidant, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic, and antidiarrheal drugs.

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