Secondary metabolite profiling in leonotis nepetifolia leaf acetone and ethanol extracts using UPLC-qTOF-MS.

Abstract

Natural compounds derived from medicinal plants, as well as their plant extracts, are utilized to treat a variety of ailments in both human and plant pathology. Using the ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-qTOF-MS), data were analyzed in both negative and positive ionization modes. A total of 19 metabolites between 7.62 and 17 minutes in acetone extracts. While 20 metabolites between 6.69 and 11.07 minutes in ethanol extracts of Leonotis nepetifolia were tentatively identified according to their retention times and fragment ions. Hirsutine and tuberostemonone were some of the identified secondary metabolites in acetone extracts and have previously been evaluated for their antifungal activity against phytopathogenic fungi. Flavonoids were the most prevalent secondary metabolites in the current study with 26.3% and 22.2% in ethanol and acetone extracts respectively. Based on the effectiveness of the solvent used, the summary of the chemical classes indicates that ethanol is better than acetone extract. Based on the major findings detected in this study, the complex profile of secondary metabolites in Leonotis nepetifolia opens new horizons to the industrial use of this plant species, which could represent therapeutic potential and antifungal activities. Our findings suggest that the presence of phytochemicals can be linked to their medicinal properties.