Analysis of Oyster Plant (Tradescantia Spathacea) Extracts via Maceration, Soxhlet Extraction and Thin Layer Chromatograpy

Daniel Russo, Cristina Balistreri, Kelly O’Reilly, Luis Cendan, Carlos Vazquez, Pilar Maul and Maria Pina

School of Science, Technology and Engineering Management, St. Thomas University, Miami Gardens, FL 33054.

The Oyster Plant (Tradescantia Spathacea) is a fleshy or succulent perennial garden herb. This plant is an ornamental plant and found in many tropical countries. Medicinally, the plant is used for colds, sore throat, whooping cough, nasal bleeding, and also as an anti-inflammatory. The plant was grown in the organic garden at St. Thomas University and collected there. All of the plant parts were separated and cleaned up first, and divided into its different parts: leaves, stems, roots, and flowers. The parts were dried two days at 40°C and grinded for wet and dry extraction. The methods included maceration and Soxhlet extraction. Maceration is a type of extraction where the plant materials were placed in different mixtures of solvents, stirred so plant material can be extracted, and left to sit for number of days at room temperature. In the Soxhlet extraction the solvent is heated to reflux, the vapor travels up a distillation arm, and floods into the chamber housing the thimble of solid. The condenser ensures that any solvent vapor cools, and drips back down into the chamber housing the solid material. Soxhlet extraction is done taking the dry material that can be repeatedly washed by a solvent. All the extracts were rot vapored and analyzed using Thin Layer Chromatography with polar and nonpolar solvents. The spots were developed and visualized with iodine and UV light. It has been found that the roots and leaves contain polar and non polar organic compounds The present work reports the best solvents for extraction, and the better separation was found to be a mixture of 75% ethanol and 25% hexane and 50% ethanol and 50% hexane. Preliminary analysis of extracts using column chromatography and test for inhibition of cancer cell growth were initiated