Phytochemical screening and GC-MS determination of bioactive constituents from methanol leaf extract of Senna occidentalis

Objective: To identify the active ingredients presented in methanol extract of Senna occidentalis (S. occidentalis). Methods: Dried powdered leaves of S. occidentalis were extracted with methanol by Soxhlet extraction and the extract was subjected to preliminary phytochemical screening by using standard procedure and methods. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) analysis was performed by comprising a GC-MS (model: QP2010 Plus Shimadzu, Japan) comprising an AOC-20i auto-sampler and gas-chromatograph interfaced to a mass spectrometer. Results: The phytochemical study revealed the presence of tannins, alkaloids, glycoside, flavonoids, steroids, saponins, anthraquinones and phlobatannins while cardiac glycoside was not detected. GC-MS chromatogram showed nine peaks. A total of 31 compounds were identified when the mass spectra of the constituents was compared with the National Institute Standard and Technology library. The first compounds identified with less retention time (15.929 s) were n-hexadecanoic acid, octadecanoic acid and pentadecanoic acid while decanoic acid, decyl ester, ether, octadecyl vinyl, oleic acid, hexyl ester, stearic acid, octadecyl ester and decyl fluoride took the longest retention time (20.600 s) for identification. Conclusions: The presence of these compounds in the plant extract may at least be responsible for one of the pharmacological properties of S. occidentalis and thus could be of considerable interest to the development of new drugs