ARS | Publication request: Potential medicinal phytochemicals from Sicklepod (Senna obtusifolia L) seed

Submitted to: Annual Meeting and Expo of the American Oil Chemists' Society
Publication Type: Abstract
Publication Acceptance Date: December 20, 2007
Publication Date: May 18, 2008
Citation: Harry O Kuru, R.E., Busman, M., Berhow, M.A. 2008. Potential medicinal phytochemicals from Sicklepod (Senna obtusifolia L) seed [abstract]. Annual Meeting and Expo of the American Oil Chemists' Society. p. 45 #125.

Technical Abstract: Senna obtusifolia L, H.S. Irwin & Berneby, occurs in the subtropical Southeastern United States as a noxious weed in soybean and other food-crop fields. This highly prolific plant has seed with a highly colored, low fat content. The main components of the seed are polysaccharides, proteins and non-food compounds which include anthraquinones and other phenolic components and their glycosides. Many of the phenolic compounds and their naturally glycosylated derivatives have been shown to exhibit potent medicinal characteristics, both as antimicrobial and as other health promoting effects. These characteristics give the plant great promise as a domestic source of novel pharmaceutical co-products if the crop is cultivated in its natural area of occurrence. In a continuing effort to partition the ground seed into its medicinal components, the seed meal was first defatted with petroleum ether. All extractions were performed in a large (3 L) Soxhlet. The defatted, dried meal was sequentially extracted with diethyl ether to remove the phenolic aglycones. Following removal of residual solvent, in vacuo, from the meal, the dried material was then treated with dichloromethane followed after drying with 95% ethanol. Each extract was concentrated in vacuo to dryness to give the corresponding solute. This solvent sequence treatment of the meal allowed separation of the oil, phenolic aglycones, phenolic mono- and diglycosides, and their tetraglycosides from the ground seed leaving the polysaccharides and major protein components in the meal residue for other applications. Each group of isolates was spectroscopically (LC-MS, FTIR, NMR) characterized and identified; thus, a process for recovering all the important components of the seed of Senna obtusifolia is reported.