My n hexane plant extract is not soluble in any solvent. I have tried water, normal saline, tween 20 (2%, 5%, 10%, 50%), tween 80 (2%, 5%, 10%, 50%), pure DMSO, ethanol (2%, 5%, 10%, 50%, 97%), infact n-hexane itself as well. But it's not completely soluble in any of these. I have warm these and vortox as well but no positive results were observed. Sparingly soluble status is there.
Plz suggest some appropriate solvent to dissolve it fully and minimal toxicity as I have to perform in vivo activities and mice dies with DMSO and other issues are also encountered with cell lines studies.
It is expected that your hexane extract of natural products would not dissolve in polar solvent and even more difficult in aqueous media which are preferred for biological assays. You mentioned in vitro and in vivo (mice) systems for your toxicity and other studies. |For these two, you do not necessarily use the same medium or vehicle for preparing your extract. So long as you have a solvent/vehicle control (to show no toxicity for the vehicle) you can use variable vehicles for the two. For animal studies you can use suspension which does not necessarily get your compounds in solution. A Tween based system for oral administration in a suspension form is that we regularly use for nonpolar compounds. For the in vitro, I would not even try hexane or nonpolar solvents as they are not compatible to the aqueous cellular medium and are toxic. You should seriously consider using DMSO in the first instance even though it may dissolve most and some would be in a suspension form. Also consider tetrahydrofuran as a solvent system as it is water miscible and serve as a good vehicle for dissolving nonpolar compounds of the hexane range.
In addition to what Solomon Habtemariam suggests you can try an ultrasonic bath to help dissolve your extract.
For in vitro work, you could try dimethylformamide, but check for toxicity with a solvent control.