Bangladesh Journal of Pharmacology Volume: 12; Number 2; Year 2017 Cite this article as: Sasikumar K, Ghosh AR. Isolation of myristyl alcohol from Hybanthus enneaspermus. Bangla- desh J Pharmacol. 2017; 12: 113-14. Isolation of myristyl alcohol from Hyban- thus enneaspermus Sir, Hybanthus enneaspermus (L) F. Muell belonging to the family Violaceae, popularly known as Ratanpurus (Hindi), is a perennial herb distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. In Ayurveda, the plant is used to cure conditions of “Kapha” and “Pitta”, urinary calculi, dysentery, vomiting, urethral discharge, blood disorders, asthma, epilepsy and cough (Patel et al., 2013). The plant has been reported to possess antidiabetic, antiplasmodial, antimicrobial, anticonvul- sant, nephroprotective, aphrodisiac, hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, aldose reductase inhibitory and anti -oxidant activities (Immanuel and Elizabeth, 2009). The plant contains a considerable amount of steroids, triterpenes, flavonoids, tannins, anthraquinones, su- gars and amino acids. Various phytoconstituents viz. dipeptide alkaloids, aurantiamide acetate, isoarborinol, and β-sitosterol have been isolated (Patel et al., 2013) and also some of the identified compounds are alkyl alcohols, heteroxanthine, theophylline, theobromine, caffeine, tetramethyl trihydroxypurine, agnosterol, lanosterol, dihydrositosterol, cholestanol, cholesterol, dihydroagnosterol, gallic acid, catechin, galangin, kaempferol, thujyl alcohol, menthol, terpinol, sesquiter- pene and daucul from H. enneaspermus by gas chromatography (Retnam and De Britto, 2003). The aim of the study was to investigate the phytochemicals of the plant H. enneaspermus. Myristyl alcohol (1- tetradecanol) was isolated from this plant as a minor phytoconstituents with simple laboratory conditions and it also presents in fewer plants. The powdered plant material was bought from the supermarket, Vellore. Plant materials were extracted with petroleum ether (60°C) using soxhlet apparatus. Ethyl acetate soluble fraction was removed from the petroleum ether dried extract. The dried petroleum ether extract was washed with methanol and finally was dissolved with the chloroform followed by dichloromethane. Soluble content of both solvents were evaporated, dried and again to that chloroform was added to dissolve. The soluble fraction of chloroform A Journal of the Bangladesh Pharmacological Society (BDPS) Bangladesh J Pharmacol 2017; 12: 113-114 Journal homepage: www.banglajol.info Abstracted/indexed in Academic Search Complete, Agroforestry Abstracts, Asia Journals Online, Bangladesh Journals Online, Biological Abstracts, BIOSIS Previews, CAB Abstracts, Current Abstracts, Directory of Open Access Journals, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Google Scholar, HINARI (WHO), International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Open J-gate, Science Citation Index Expanded, SCOPUS and Social Sciences Citation Index ISSN: 1991-0088; DOI: 10.3329/bjp.v12i2.27605 Letter to the Editor Figure 1: 1H NMR (A) and 13C NMR (B) spectrum of isolated compound (1-tetradecanol) from H. enneaspermus This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You are free to copy, distribute and perform the work. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor was completely evaporated and subjected for spectral analysis. 1-Tetradecanol was isolated as white crystalline solid and the molecular formula was proposed as C14H30O based on HR-EIMS showing an ion at m/z 213.4900 (calculated for 214.22980); The FT-IR spectrum of compound reveals a broad peak situated at 3444 cm-1 which is assigned to O-H stretching vibration. The peaks at 2954, 2918 and 2848 cm-1 are assigned to C-H stretching vibrations of methyl group, respectively to asymmetric and symmetric stretching vibrations of methylene groups. At 1463 cm-1 it was identified the C- H scissoring vibration, while at 954 cm-1 it was found the C-O stretching vibration. The rocking vibration of methyl group was easily detectable in the spectrum at 729 cm-1. 13C NMR (CDCl3) spectrum revealed the presence of one methyl and 13 methylene groups. δ64.57 (C-1), δ29.86 (C-2), δ22.85 (C-3), δ29.82 (C-4), δ25.20 (C-5), δ29.52 (C-6), δ29.42 (C-7), δ29.32 (C-8), δ29.64 (C-9), δ26.10 (C-10), δ32.08 (C-11), δ28.81 (C-12), δ34.59 (C-13), δ14.27 (C-14); 1H NMR (CDCL3) spectrum showed a triplet at δ0.86 (J=7.2 Hz), a multiplet at δ 1.25 and δ 4.06 (J =6.9, 9.5 Hz) revealing that it was a straight chain fatty alcohol. The FT-IR and NMR data in Figure 1 were identical to the published data of myristyl alcohol (1-tetradecanol) (Naz et al., 2015). 1-Tetradecanol was reported to have benefits on skin whitening, moisturizing, alopecia, and also used as an ingredient in cosmetics such as cold creams, lotions (Lee et al., 2015). It may be a potent candidate used in cosmetic industry. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report on isolation of 1-tetradecanol from H. enneaspermus. Kandasamy Sasikumar and Asit Ranjan Ghosh Centre for Infectious Disease and Control, School of BioScience and Technology, VIT University, Vellore, India. Corresponding author: email: asitranjanghosh@vit.ac.in References Immanuel RR, Elizabeth LL. Weeds in agroecosystems: A source of medicines for human healthcare. Int J Pharm Tech Res. 2009; 1: 375-85. Lee SY, Choi EJ, Bae DH, Lee DW, Kim S. Effects of 1- tetradecanol and β-sitosterol isolated from Dendropanax morbifera Lev. on skin whitening, moisturizing and preven- ting hair loss. J Soc Cosmet Sci. 2015; 41: 73-83. Naz S, Saied S, Zahir E, Siddiqi H. Characterization of new lignan and alcohol from the water extract of Ipomoea cairica. Int J Adv Res. 2015; 3: 190-96 Patel DK, Kumar R, Sairam K, Hemalatha S. Hybanthus enneaspermus (L.) F. Muell: A concise report on its phyto- pharmacological aspects. Chin J Nat Med. 2013; 11: 199−206 Retnam KR, De Britto AJ. Phytochemical analysis of a medicinal plant Hybanthus enneaspermus (L.) F. Muell. J Econ Taxon Bot. 2003; 27: 701-06. 114 Bangladesh J Pharmacol 2017; 12: 113-114 DatePrinted: This article was downloaded by you on: May 04, 2017