Isolation and Cytotoxicity Evaluation of Long Chain Bioactive Compounds from Commiphora swynnertonii (Burtt)

Abstract

Commiphora swynnertonii (Burtt) is a medicinal plant with diverse traditional uses in Tanzania. However, there is limited information on isolation and cytotoxicity properties of bioactive compounds responsible for its pharmacological activities. Hence, this study attempted to isolate and assess toxicity properties of bioactive compounds from its leaves, stem barks and whole root. Isolation of bioactive compounds was done by column chromatography method. There structures were deduced with the aid of NMR and GC-MS data and comparison with spectral data available in the literatures. Cytotoxicity evaluation was done by brine shrimp lethality test (BSLT) method. Chromatographic separation led to isolation of Hexacosane (1), Ethyl octadecanoate (2) and Octacosanol (3) from the leaves; Ethyl pentadecanoate (4) and Hexacosanoic acid (5) from the stem barks and Ethyl tetradecanoate (6), Methyl pentadecanoate (7) and Ethyl hexadecanoate (8) from the whole root. BSLT evaluation revealed that all compounds were non-toxic to brine shrimp larvae (LC50 >100 µg/ml). This study reports the isolation of these compounds for the first time from this plant, moreover, their presence demonstrates the usefulness of C. swynnertonii as a good source of pharmacological active reported compounds which authenticate its diverse uses in traditional medicine. Furthermore, the revealed non-toxic effect of these compoundsshows safety and possibly its traditional use has no cytotoxicity effect. Yet, further studies on toxicity of these compounds are recommended.