Smart Bandage Plant: A report on Isolation of Trigonelline and Methoxy Quercetin from the Methanol Extract of Pennisetum Pedicellatum (Trin) (Poaceae)

Pennisetum pedicellatum has been used for a long time by the people of rural communities as bandage in the treatment of fresh wounds from cuts. Herein, we reported the isolation and characterization of trigonelline and methoxy quercetin from the methanolic extract of Pennisetum pedicellatum. Approximately, 600 g of the coarse particles of the plant material was washed with n-hexane, and extracted twice with methanol by maceration. Results from the preliminary phytochemical screening of the extracts revealed the presence of alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, saponins, phenols, and sterols. The extract was then tested for in-vitro antimicrobial activity against some selected gram positive and gram negative bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli as well as antifungal activity against Aspergillus niger, Muccor species, and Candida albicans. The extract showed significant activities against all the selected pathogens with a zone of inhibition ranging from 7 mm to 25 mm, the overall activity of the extracts increases with increase in concentration from 5 mg/ml to 45 mg/ml. Having impressed by the antimicrobial results, the active compounds were then isolated using column chromatography where fractional collection of the eluent led to the isolation of two pure compounds. Further characterization using FT-IR, and GC-MS found the two isolated compounds to be trigonelline (C1) and methoxy quercetin (C2). Key words: smart bandage, phytochemical screening, antimicrobial, isolation, trigonelline and methoxy quercetin