Investigation of Solvent Efficiency in Extraction of Bioactive Constituents from Peels, Leaves and Tubers of Sweet Potato

The effectiveness of solvents in extracting phytochemicals from leaves, peels and tubers of sweet potato was studied with a view of knowing the best solvent for extraction as well as establishing the availability of bioactive constituents in different parts of sweet potato. The peels, leaves and tubers of sweet potato were obtained, cut, air-dried, ground, sieved with 40 mm mesh and separately extracted using six different solvents (acetone, ethyl acetate, methanol, ethanol, water and chloroform) at ratio 1:10 for 72 h. The extracts obtained using six different solvents on peels, leaves and tubers of sweet potato were screened for phytochemicals. It was observed that all the three parts of sweet potato considered were rich in phytochemicals, although the peels and tubers contained relatively higher bioactive constituents than that available in the leaves. The extraction efficiency of the solvents in obtaining bioactive constituents from leaves, peels and tubers of sweet potato is highest in ethanol, followed by methanol, acetone and ethyl acetate while the least were in chloroform and water.