Isolation and identification of moretenol from Ficus deltoidea leaves

J. Mohd. Lip, D. Nazrul Hisham, J. Arif Zaidi, Y. Musa, A.W. Ahmad, A. Normah and A. Sharizan

Abstract

Ficus deltoidea or ‘mas cotek’ is among the most popular traditional medicinal plants in Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo Island. However, information on chemical constituents of this herb is very limited. This paper reports on the isolation of moretenol from the methanolic extract of Ficus deltoidea leaves using vacuum liquid chromatography and open column chromatography techniques. The structure elucidation of moretenol was carried out using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer as well as mass spectrometer data. It was concluded that dried F. deltoidea leaves contained 0.04% moretenol and can be suggested as a chemical marker. Determination of moretenol levels can assist the selection and harvesting processes of F. deltoidea accessions for plantation or product development in the future.

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