Isolation and characterization of secondary metabolites from the mangrove plant Rhizophora mucronata

To evaluate the antibacterial activity of foliar extracts of Rhizophora mucronata (R. mucronata) against pathogens belonging to human origin and to identify the compound hitherto unprecedented in nature by GC-MS analysis. Soxhlet extraction method was used to get the corresponding extracts of ethanol, petroleum ether, acetone, methanol and ethyl acetate. The antimicrobial activities of the organic solvent extracts on the various test organisms using agar well diffusion technique were carried out. Ethyl acetate extract exhibited promising antimicrobial activity and hence minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was performed for the same. Column chromatography was done for partial purification of crude extract and fractions were analyzed by GC-MS. A column chromatographic fractionation of the extracts and further UV visible and GS-MS analysis suggested the active principle compound were a mixture of squalene (19.19%), n-Hexadecanoic acid (6.59%), phytol (4.74%), 2-cyclohexane-1-one, 4-hydroxy-3,5, (4.20%) and oleic acid (2.88%). The results are good enough to serve to transform the practice of research in this sub field across a range of different benefit streams that include drug development. By and large this type of structure analyses are most important as aids to more rational decision taking in safety models versus effectiveness. In general, structural data provide prima facie support for drug hypothesis.