Comparison of Methods for Extracting Alkaloids from Plant Material

BSC-Ursa Minor 148

The objective of this project was to compare two different methods of extracting alkaloids from plant material. Alkaloids are nitrogen containing secondary metabolites from plants and these compounds have historically been a valuable source of new medicines. The existing method of extracting alkaloids in our lab requires an initial overnight percolation step, which extends the length of this experimental method to two days and limits the number of extractions that can be performed in a short time span. We developed an abbreviated extraction method that reduces the amount of solvents used in the experiment and the amount of time needed to complete the extraction process. Our new method reduces the initial percolation step from overnight to three hours and combines an acidification step using 0.5 M hydrochloric acid with the initial percolation of the plant material. This consolidation of separate steps in the existing method into a single step in the new method greatly reduces the length of the experiment. We compared our existing alkaloid extraction method with our modified method by extracting the alkaloid anabasine from the invasive plant Nicotiana glauca. Comparing the results of both methods showed that there was a negligible difference in the mass of the alkaloids extracted, supporting the use of our new extraction method over our existing method.