Abstract

Zanthoxylum acanthopodium D.C., commonly known as Mukthrubi in Manipur, India; is known for its varied medicinal properties such as in the treatment of toothache, stomachache, cough, bronchitis and also as an insecticide. In the present study, the phytochemicals from Z. acanthopodium leaves were extracted with ethyl acetate and subjected to column chromatography. The chemical composition of petroleum ether: ethyl acetate (10:90, v/v) fractions (1-5) was determined by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrophotometry (GC-MS) technique and the identification of compounds was done by comparing the mass spectra of the unknown compounds with entries in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Wiley (John Wiley & Sons Ltd) libraries. The GC-MS analysis showed the presence of five compounds viz., paulownin (93.17 %), lariciresinol (4.08 %), bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (1.58 %), 2-[1-(3-methoxy-phenyl)-1h-tetrazol-5-ylsulfanyl]-N-(2,4,6-trimethyl-phenyl)-acetamide (0.71 %) and 5,5-diethyl-6-methylspiro[2.3]hexan-4-one (0.46 %). From the results it can be concluded that Z. acanthopodium leaves extract shows the presence of 5 phytocompounds and Paulownin is the major compound having highest peak area. The presence of various bioactive compounds justifies the medicinal use of Z. acanthopodium leaves.