Comprehensive Phytochemical Analysis of Plant Extracts

The alcoholic plant extracts were obtained as follows: 10 g of each plant were let to macerate for 72 h in 100 mL of 70% ethanol, after which they were transferred to a turbo extractor where they were extracted for 3 min at 4000 rpm, and the extract was finally filtered. We used the aerial parts of wormwood, marigold and summer savory, coriander and pumpkin seeds, and garlic bulbs, respectively. Six plant extracts (A. sativum L., A. absinthium L., C. sativum L., C. pepo L., C. officinalis L. and S. hortensis L.), which had an initial concentration of 10%, were hence obtained. The plant extracts were obtained at the “Iuliu Haţieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca, where the chemical composition of each extract was also performed [57 (link),58 (link),59 ,60 (link),61 (link),62 (link),63 (link),64 (link),65 (link),66 (link)]. High performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC/MS) was employed for the analysis of major compounds present in the plant extracts (Table 2). The experiment was performed by using an Agilent 1100 HPLC Series system (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA) equipped with binary pump, degasser, column thermostat, autosampler, and UV detector. The HPLC system was coupled with a mass spectrometer, type Brucker Ion Trap SL (Brucker Daltonics GmbH, Leipzig, Germany). For the separation, a reverse-phase analytical column was used (Zorbax SB-C18 100 × 3.0 mm i.d., 3.5 μm particle). Depending on the chemical class of each compound from the plant samples, different ionisation sources and mode were employed for the MS system. More precisely, for analysis of alliin, methoxylated flavones, and polyphenols, the ESI (electrospray ionisation) source was used, whereas APCI (atmospheric pressure chemical ionization) source was employed for analysis of sesquiterpene lactones, sterols, and tocopherols. The chromatographic data were processed by using ChemStation and DataAnalysis software from Agilent (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA).