Analytical Methods of Isolation and Identification

Abstract

The chemical constituents of plants are complicated, and monomeric com- pounds must be obtained via extraction and isolation before structure identifica- tion, bioactivity screening, and so on. In recent years, the new technologies and methods of the extraction, isolation, and structural identification have come forth, which promote the speed of extraction and analysis of phytochemicals. The chemi- cal structures of compounds from plants must be identified or elucidated, which may provide the necessary basis for further study on the bioactivities, structure- activity relationships, metabolisms in vivo, structural modification, and synthesis of the active compounds. The amount of chemical constituents isolated from plants is often minor, so the structural studies are often difficult to carry out with classical methods. Therefore, spectral analysis is mainly used. This chapter describes the isolation and identification methods during the study of phytochemicals.