HPLC-ESI-MS ANALYSIS OF SOME BIOACTIVE SUBSTANCES IN TWO YEMENI MEDICINAL PLANTS

Abstract

Plants have abundant bioactive components and play an important role in folk medicine, owing to their health benefits in the treatment of many diseases, partially due to the secondary metabolite compositions. Nonetheless, detailed information on these substances is still limited. The recent work was aimed at investigating the bioactive substances of two Yemeni medicinal plants (i.e. Plectranthus asirensis and Plectranthus amboinicus) using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry in a positive ionization mode. The proposed method provided a tentative identification of several constituents such as alkaloids, fatty acids, steroids, and terpenoids. The obtained results highlight the importance of studied plants as a promising natural source of bioactive compounds.

Keywords

• medicinal plants, p. asirensis, p. amboinicus, bioactive components, hplc-esi-ms.