I am extracting some dried leaf samples by using soxhlet method, but my powdered samples looks clumpy, and not able to powder finely. The leaf sample is known with its fibre as well as mucilage contents. Will this affect my extraction ? Is there any special method for extraction of these kind of plant materials?
Almost all the leaves of plant contains fibres, resins and fatty acids which has to be defatted initially by extracting with a non polar solvent like petroleum ether or hexane. Preferred is petroleum ether. The marc obtained can be used for further alcoholic (ethanol or methanol) extraction. If it still exist then you have to go for hexane wash of the extract to get some dry material. can also perform lyophilisation to get dry powder. It is not possible to obtain dry powder with direct ethanol or methanol extract of a plant leaf material.
Almost all the leaves of plant contains fibres, resins and fatty acids which has to be defatted initially by extracting with a non polar solvent like petroleum ether or hexane. Preferred is petroleum ether. The marc obtained can be used for further alcoholic (ethanol or methanol) extraction. If it still exist then you have to go for hexane wash of the extract to get some dry material. can also perform lyophilisation to get dry powder. It is not possible to obtain dry powder with direct ethanol or methanol extract of a plant leaf material.
You can try by adding a neutral material like silica gel, diatamaceous earth etc to make it dryer & porous for your solvent extraction. Sometimes, the extracted material from previous expt, we used to add!
When using water in the extracting liquid mixture, you can expect your extract to behave like mucilage. Try successive liquid-liquid extraction after your first main extraction; use non-aqueous solvents and subject the extract to ultrasonic bath to help break down any clumps.
To Khaled's: I think one must be cautious to use ultrasonics just as heat, in the case of unknowns.
You have a dried leaves, powder it and put a cloth pag in your soxhlet, fill the pag with your powder and go ahead by your suitable solvent
Bapuji you are right; he must monitor the temperature of the sample to keep it in the required range or use a cold bath.
The stirred extraction as well as packed bed extraction can be used.
For extraction it is not required to powder completely. Coarse powder can be extracted in a similar way as standard methods. It also include what type of constituents you are interested to Isolate.
Sir,
my leaf sample is still dark green in colour after complete drying. will it cause any problem during extraction?.and further pharmocological evaluations?
Chlorophyll removal is an art! It nags you different ways. Particularly if your desired compounds have similar polarity as chlorophyll.
for higher yield of fibre and mucilage from leaves, you can use first p.ether and further methanol or ethanol for plant extraction
Varsha Dilip and Sanmugapriya both are right. It needs also clarification whether you want fibre extraction or secondory metamolites.
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