2.3 Extraction and Preliminary Phytochemical screening of leaf
powder of S. mombin L.
The extraction process was carried out according to standard procedures
as indicated by (Harborne, 1998). In
brief, 60g of air-dried SM powder was weighed and macerated serially at
room temperature for 72 hours until the solvent of extraction was clear.
The extraction was performed in triplicates using solvents of increasing
polarities. These solvents were from less polar to more; hexane,
dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, ethanol and methanol. Extracts of each
solvent were bulked together, filtered, concentrated and dried using a
rotary evaporator and preserved in the refrigerator (−4 °C) for future
phytochemical screening, isolation, purification and characterization.
Preliminary qualitative phytochemical analysis was performed on the
methanolic extract according to standard procedures reported
(Harborne, 1998,
Costa et al., 2012a).