Isolation and Characterization of a Novel Chemical Entity from Ether Extract of Ammomum subulatum Leaves

Recently there has been a shift in universal trend from synthetic to herbal medicine, which we can say‘Return to Nature’. Ammomum subulatum which is commonly known as large cardamom is belongingto family Zingiberaceae. Plant has plenty of medicinal values. This paper represents the isolation of anew chemical entity, cardamonin, present in the leaves of Ammomum subulatum and their medicinalaspects. Cardamonin is a well known compound previously isolated from seeds of Ammomumsubulatum, having antimicrobial activity. This time leaves of Ammomum subulatum was used as a plantmaterial due to large availability in nature than seeds, for isolation of biological active compounds.Extraction of chlorophyll free dried leaves was done with petroleum ether. Concentrate the extract andthen isolate the compounds column chromatography using silica gel as an absorbent. Diethyl etherextract of the drug was poured in the silica column and then eluted successively with different solvents;in the increasing order of polarity Different fractions of compounds were separated and marked. Thefractions having same Rf values were combined together and concentrated. Concentrated fractions werecrystallized with ethyl acetate. Identification of the isolated compound was confirmed by physicochemicaldata, spectral interpretation and elemental analysis.