I isolated a compound from a Plant; this compound has a very poor solubility in different solvents; is it possible to characterise the structure of such compound; if yes, by which technique?
First thing to do is To purificat the compound then for the solobility, try A littel amount of your compund in DMSO or pyridine then use nmr and masse spectra for the identification
As per my opinion only soluble matter will work for spectroscopic study. Either you should find out the solvent in which your compound has higher solubility or you have to use only soluble matter for the identification. For this, you will require more quantity of your isolated compound.
As my opinion, you can use a lot of clues to identify the structure of a natural compound.
Firstly, which fraction/solvent do you use to isolate that compound?
If the fraction is non-polar, such as n-hexane, petrol ether, you can hope to isolate a fatty acid, phytosterol,... The polar fraction can contain saponin...
Secondly, you can use some technique to identify functional group of your compound, such as: chemical reagent, spectrum (UV, IR, NMR,...)
Another way is to refer document of the plant you study to identify the group of chemical which did research in the past. Your compound can be one of these compounds or related to them.
In the both ways, NMR spectrum plays a key role when you identify structure. You can refer your spectrum to another one which already had spectra data or you can analysis the spectra to suggest a structure.
I am just a junior in natural chemistry, sorry for my modest knowledge. Good luck to you!
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