Planta Med 2014; 80 - P1L146
DOI: 10.1055/s-0034-1394803

Development of a temperature-pressure controlled extraction method for the alkaloids of Erythrina mulungu

A Coqueiro 1, 2, LW Lee 1, V da Silva Bolzani 2, R Verpoorte 1, YH Choi 1
  • 1Natural Products Laboratory, Institute of Biology, Leiden University, Sylviusweg 72, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands;
  • 2Institute of Chemistry, São Paulo State University, Rua Prof. Francisco Degni 55, 14800 – 060 Araraquara (SP), Brazil

Erythrina species (Fabaceae) are medicinal plants, popularly used to treat anxiety problems [1]. Among the species Erythrina mulungu is a candidate to become a phytomedicine in the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS). Previous studies showed that the alkaloids isolated from E. mulungu are responsible for the anti-anxiety activity [2,3]. Due to this, the alkaloids are the focus of the most part of researches performed with Erythrina species. However the yield of the alkaloids is low compared to others components in these plants. Despite of previous researches related to extraction technology two important physical factors, temperature and pressure have been little investigated. Those factors are highly assumed to influence extraction efficiency since structure of sample matrix like cell wall or membrane is easily changed together with swelling degree. Also, the degree of density and permeability of solvents are largely governed by temperature and pressure. Here, we present the effect of temperature and pressure on the yield of extracted alkaloids from flowers of E. mulungu. From the results, the optimum conditions were determined for targeted metabolites analysis. The correlation between the parameters and the metabolites were calculated by 1H quantitative NMR data using a design of extraction (DOE) method, D-optimization. The extractions were performed using a speed extractor machine in the conditions optimized by DOE. The flowers were extracted using EtOH 70% in different combinations of temperature and pressure (T = 30, 50 and 70 °C and P = 50, 90 and 120 bar), in triplicate. The dried extracts were submitted to an acid/base extraction to obtain the alkaloidal fractions (Alk). The total Alk content was determined using 1H NMR. The experimental optimization showed that the main effect was observed for the temperature. The highest temperature increases the yield in 28%, which is significant increase considering large-scale production.

Keywords: Erythrina mulungu, alkaloids, 1 H NMR, design of experiment

References:

[1] Rodrigues VEG, Carvalho DA. Plantas Medicinais nos domínios do Cerrado. Lavras: Universidade Federal de Lavras; 2001.

[2] Flausino JrOA, Pereira AM, Bolzani VS, Nunes-de-Souza RL. Effects of erythrinian alkaloids isolated from Erythrina mulungu (Papilionaceae) in mice submitted to animal models of anxiety. Biol Pharm Bull 2007; 30: 375 – 378.

[3] Flausino JrOA, Santos LA, Verli H, Pereira AM, Bolzani VS, Nunes-de-Souza RL. Anxiolytic effects of erythrinian alkaloids from Erythrina mulungu. J Nat Prod 2007; 70: 48 – 53.