Characterization of Organic Compounds in Aframomum melegueta K. Schum Using GC-MS

In this study, we characterized organic compounds from extracts of the herb Aframomum melegueta K. Schum using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) analysis. The influence of five different solvents, 10% sodium hydroxide (NaOH), methanol, ethanol, petroleum ether and n-hexane on the nature of extracted organic compounds and efficiency of extraction was evaluated. Results showed that organic compounds present in extracts of A. melegueta depends on the type of extraction solvents used and that only few compounds are similar in all the extracts analyzed by the GC-MS. Specifically, the polar solvents (10% NaOH, methanol and ethanol) were more effective for recovering phenolic compounds and organic acid esters. While the non-polar solvents (petroleum ether and n-hexane) helped to effectively, recover essential oil derivatives and cholesterols. We described in this paper the correlations among the structures of the most abundant compounds in all the extracts with their probable pharmacologic effects in living hosts. The findings of this study demonstrated that A. melegueta contains organic compounds, which may serve as new drug leads of natural products origin and make it employable in modern pharmacological practices.