I have extracted plant sample using methanol. The methanol extract was mixed with water at 50 mg/ml concentration to dissolve. However, the extract did not dissolve completely. What will be possible solution to fix the problem? Adding DMSO/more water/methanol and what concentration?
Hi, do you have an ultrasonic bath? This maybe will help you. If not you possibly need a co-solvent. You wrote that you have mixed the extract with water to achieve a concentration of 50 mg/ml? That's a lot. Try one tenth of your concentration.
you may also prepare as a suspension using suitable suspending agent.
Dear Md Moniruzzaman,
May I know if the extraction was successive or direct? If it was a direct extraction using methanol you may not always expect 100% solubility. But, as recommended by Christ, you can still try sonication to dissolve. But, I think you can give a try with DMSO. The least solubility may be due to high extract to solvent ratio.
Selection of solvents should be done carefully when planned for an antidiabetic study. For in vitro studies using enzymes, you can use solvents with polarity higher than methanol (water or DMSO) or methanol itself checking their direct effect as well. However for an in vivo study, you should use either water or CMC (0.5-1%) for dissolving the extract as the animal toxicity matters during the course if the study.
Hope this will help!
All the best!
Regards
Hello Md,
All suggestions thus far are salient. From my experience, some plant extracts, especially those extracted with polar solvents, are insoluble in water. Ultrasonicating for a long period of time may help. However, if this doesn't work, DMSO almost always does the magic. But there are toxicity concerns with DMSO, so you can try using tween 20 or tween 80 first.
If DMSO, is the only solvent that dissolved your extract, remember to run a solvent control group as well to study the effect of DMSO alone as compared to your dissolved extract in DMSO.
Best wishes,
Chigozie
As for methodology, you will have to macerate the sample first in methanol.
Step 1. Air, Oven or Freeze dry your plant material
Step 2. Get it powdered and mix with 200 ml of 95-100% methanol
Step 3. Macerate it at room temp for 24-48 hrs and filter
Step 4. Remove methanol from filtrate and get it dried using rotary evaporator or water bath at 45 °C
Step 5. Dissolve 50 g of the dried filtrate with 100 ml of 5-20% DMSO to get a concentration of 50 mg/ml
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