Phytochemical Profiling and GC- MS Analysis of Lantana camara Leaf Extract

Identification of the phytochemical composition of plants is vital in new drug discovery and lead compound development for the management of infectious and non-infectious diseases. Lantana camara is an important medicinal essential oil-producing plant used in folklore medicine for the treatment of several diseases. This study evaluated the phytochemical composition and profiled the biologically active principles present in L. camara leaf extracts collected from Orba, Enugu State of Nigeria. The profiling of L. camara leaves methanol and aqueous extracts was done using qualitative and quantitative phytochemical and GC-MS techniques. The phytochemical screening showed the presence of alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids and other phenolic compounds. There were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in the steroids, saponins, terpenoids, glycosides and phenolic contents of methanol and aqueous extracts. The phenolic content in methanol (1563.85±0.07 mg/100g) and aqueous (1425.23±0.36 mg/100g) were significantly higher than other phytochemicals tested in this study. There was significantly (p < 0.05) higher alkaloids (506.74±5.52 mg/100g), flavonoids (372.04±8.39 mg/100g) and tannins (1426.43±7.43 mg/100g) in the methanol compared with the aqueous extracts with 349.92±13.10 mg/100g, 231.99±6.16 mg/100g and 1351.62±20.6 mg/100g respectively. The GC-MS analysis showed the presence of 39 biologically important compounds which included bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, 9,19-cyclolanostan-3-ol-11-one acetate, 4H-1-benzopyran-4-one-5-hydroxy-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl), n-hexadecanoic acid, (Z)-7-hexadecenal, phytol acetate, phytol, 3,7,11,15-tetramethyl-2-hexadecen-1-ol and bicyclo 4.4.0 dec-2-ene-4-ol 2-methyl-9-(prop-1-en-3-ol-2-yl). The phytochemical analysis and the GC-MS profiling of the extracts of L. camara showed the presence of biologically important phytochemicals which could be responsible for the ethnomedicinal effects of L. camara.