I will be working on Abrus precatorius (plant species) which will be extracted in methanol and partitioned using hexane, CCl4 and chloroform. I read that DMSO can be used but I'm not too sure, since I will be doing HPLC, NMR, LC-MS, IR and MS.
DMSO is also a good solvent for the extraction of bioactive components from plant extract. As you are using alkanes and methanol already, you can try DMSO too.
Best wishes
What is the stock solution to be used for? DMSO is a good solvent, but the concentration is often limited (5% or 10%) in some assays. If you using the DMSO to extract or partition your compound, note it is difficult to remove due to its high boiling point, though it can be removed chromatographically.
DMSO can be applied if the stock solution was meant for HPLC, IR, MS but not recommended for NMR as you are required to dissolve your extract in deuterated solvents and you will find difficulties in evaporating it. Last time I dissolved my Clinacanthus Nutans extract using petroleum ether : chloroform mixture at ratio 1: 1. Personally speaking, I won't recommend methanol and ethanol as I had my experience that both of them failed to preserve my extract even I store in a fridge at 5 degree celcius. Hope this help.
In case you need the Stock solution just for the time of the experiments (HPLC, LCMS; etc) you can use methanol, everything is going to dissolve because is the extraction solvent, if you want to keep the solution for a long period of time DMSO is a good option, also keep in mind that is quite difficult to remove... Some times is better to keep the dry extract and prepare fresh solution if you need it. For example for NMR, you need a dry sample is you put DMSO will be really difficult to dry, for LCMS is better use a solution in MeOH, ACN or mixtures with Water, not DMSO.
Do not use DMSO.
Solvent evaporate very difficult to completely after extraction.
If you are going to run an LC-msms on your extract DMSO will be appropraite, however after extraction you may not be completely able to remove it. Acetonitrile is also a workable option.
I think you will have traces of the solvent DMSO during analysis by spectroscopic methods!
Each solvent will be able to extract different components based on polarity hence for new compounds, different solvents need to be used to completely identify the phytochemicals in plant. In case of DMSO extract, due to its high dielectric, it will preferably extract very polar components. Solid phase extraction from this extract may yield simplification if further analysis is desired.
I would not advice you to use DMSO. You can use methanol after you have extracted with hexane, chloroform and other non polar solvents. DMSO are usually used to dissolve extracts for animal experimentation use, i.e to feed to animals or animal tissues work, as they are relatively non toxic.
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