HEXANE SOLUBLE BIOACTIVE COMPONENTS OF Chenopodium murale STEM

Chenopodium murale L. is a common winter weed mostly growing along the road-sides. In the present study, n-hexane soluble fraction of methanolic stem extract of this weed was subjected to GC-MS analysis that showed the presence of 28 compounds in this fraction. Major compounds included oleic acid (16.55%), palmitic acid (11.22%), β-sitosterol (9.63%), hexadecanoic acid (7.71%) and methyl oleate (5.90%). Other prominent compounds were piperine (4.75%), nonacosane (4.69%), monoplalmitin (4.21%), γ-sitosterol (3.91%), methyl linoleate (3.88%), neocurdione (3.86%) and ethanonone (3.25%). The compounds such as stigmasterol (2.92%), 1,4-benzenedicarboxylic acid (2.78%), tetracosanoic acid (1.19%), stearic acid (1.36%), tridecanoic acid (1.35%), tridecanal (1.30%), phytol (1.29%), docosanoic acid, methyl ester (1.23%), octadecanoic acid (1.20%), 4-pyrimidinecarboxylic acid (1.05%), 2-hydroxy-2-phenylbutanamide (0.91%), hexacosanoic acid (0.76%), cholestrol (0.61%), methyl octacosanoate (0.55%) and tetracosanoic acid (0.30%) were present in low concentrations. A thorough literature survey showed that most of the identified compounds possessed antifungal and/or antibacterial properties while very few of them also possessed antioxidant potential. This study concludes that n-hexane soluble fraction of methanolic stem extract of C. murale is a big storehouse of antimicrobial compounds.