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GC–MS Analysis of Bioactive Compounds present in Ethanol Leaves Extracts of an Indigenous Plant, Newbouldia laevis
Abstract
Newbouldia laevis is an indigenous African medicinal plant widely used in traditional medicine for the management of disease. This study aimed to identify and characterize the bioactive volatile and semi-volatile compounds present in the ethanolic leaf extract of Newbouldia laevis using Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis. Fresh leaves were collected, authenticated, air-dried, pulverized, and extracted with absolute ethanol using maceration and Soxhlet methods. Preliminary quantitative phytochemical analyses confirmed the presence of phenolics, flavonoids, tannins, terpenoids, and alkaloids. GC–MS analysis revealed eighteen identifiable compounds. Hexadecanedioic acid was the most abundant constituent (55.55%), followed by dodecane, 2,7,10-trimethyl(11.16%), while other detected compounds included phytol (2.22%), oleic acid (2.05%), squalene (1.90%), citronellol (1.68%), and several fatty acid esters and aromatic derivatives present in smaller proportions. The predominance of fatty acids and terpenoid-related compounds suggests that ethanol efficiently extracts moderately polar and lipophilic phytoconstituents. These findings provide a solvent-specific chemical analysis of the ethanolic leaf extract of N. laevis, supporting its ethnomedicinal relevance and offering baseline data for future bioassay-guided isolation, pharmacological validation, and quality control standardization studies.
