IDENTIFICATION OF PHYTOCONSTITUENTS PRESENT IN EPIPREMNUM AUREUM (LINDEN AND ANDRE) G. S. BUNTING BY GC-MS

Introduction: Chromatographic purification methanolic extract of Epipremnum aureum (Linden and Andre) G. S. Bunting by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) was done to analyze the phytochemical constituents for further pharmacological uses. Methods: Ten grams of fresh leaves of plant sample was subjected to solvent extraction with methanol and analyzed by GC-MS on a GCMS-2010 Shimadzu instrument with a Restek-5MS column (5% diphenyl- 95% dimethyl polysiloxane, 30m × 0.25mm ID × 0.25µm df). The compounds were separated using helium as carrier gas at a constant flow 1.21ml/min.  Results: It provided peaks of thirty different phytochemical compounds with major components namely 12-Methyl-E,E-2,13-octadecadien-1-ol (4.56%), Lanceol, cis (4.59%), alpha.,2,6,6-tetramethyl- (19.28%), 8-Octadecanone (7.27%), Dibutyl phthalate (16.75%), Phytol (4.28%), vitamin E (8.00%) and gamma-Sitosterol (8.07%). Ten compounds are reported to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, diuretic, antiulcer, antimicrobial, antifungal and pesticide activities based on Dr. Duke’s phytochemical and ethnobotanical database. Conclusion: This work will help to identify and isolate these bioactive compounds having pharmaceutical and therapeutic value. In the present study, methanolic extract of the leaves of E. aureum, an ornamental plant was analyzed using mass spectrometry. Through these results, we can conclude that E. aureum not only as ornamental foliage can also be exploited to isolate and characterize important bioactive compounds for pharmaceutical and industrial applications.