Isolation and Characterisation of Some Amaryllidaceae Alkaloids from Daffodils Extract Using GCMS Techniques

Abstract

Haemanthamine an amaryllidaceae alkaloid has growth inhibitory activities against tumour cells such as Rauscher viral leukaemia. It has also been reported to possessed many interesting biological properties including protein synthesis inhibition, anti-parasitic, anti-retroviral activity and cytotoxicity agent against various cancer cells, anti-inflammatory activities and analgesic property. Daffodil is one of the specie in the family Amaryllidaceae, it is commonly called Narcissus in English.  In recent years, a lot of technological advances have been deployed in the quest for the discovery of natural products. Most of which majorly favours constituents present in high concentrations and negating those in low concentrations. Thus, this research employed GC-MS techniques being among the most reliable and efficient analytical tools for the evaluation and characterisation of haemanthamine and other minor alkaloids. The results revealed that a total of 12 alkaloids tentatively isolated and characterised by GC-MS.