Phytochemical Screening and FTIR Analysis for Fractions of Ethanol Extract from Mitragyna speciosa leaves

Introduction: Mitragyna speciosa, also referred to as kratom, has long been utilised for its stimulant and analgesic effects, which are mostly due to its high alkaloid content. Most of the study of M. speciosa utilised methanol as the solvent of extraction. However, ethanol is a more environmentally friendly and nontoxic solvent that can also be used for the extraction process. The purpose of this study was to use ethanol to extract phytochemicals from M. speciosa leaves and separate the bioactive compounds by using Vacuum Liquid Chromatography (VLC). Methods: M. speciosa leaves underwent ethanol maceration followed by phytochemical screening with Dragendorffs, Shinoda, Salkowski, FeCl?, foam tests and VLC fractionation. The resulting five fractions were analysed by TLC and screened for alkaloids, phenolic, unsaturated compounds and flavonoids along with analysation of the functional groups by using the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Results: Screening of the crude ethanol extract exhibits positive reactions for alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, phenolics, tannins and saponin. Meanwhile, the TLC analysis of the fractions using solvent system n-hexane: ethyl acetate (30:20) shows presence of alkaloid compound with Rf value of 0.80 for fraction 3 and 0.83 for fraction 2,4 and 5 which aligns with the literature for mitragynine. FTIR results exhibit presence of important peaks of mitragynine such as C=O, N-H and C-H for the fractions while C=C, can only be found in fraction 3. Conclusion: This study supports the use of ethanol as solvent of extraction and proved that VLC is highly efficient in its ability to fractionate the ethanol extract of M. speciosa.