DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2016.v04i09.007

Pages: 732-737

Curcuma xanthorrhiza, a plant originating from Indonesia, has been known for its medicinal uses for a long time, including its rhizomes. The major compound of C. xanthorrhiza essential oil is xanthorrhizol, which is responsible for many beneficial effects of C. xanthorrhiza. The present study aimed to develop simplified method for xanthorrhizol isolation from C. xanthorrhiza rhizome due to its limited availability and difficulties in the isolation method. Dried rhizome of C. xanthorrhiza was extracted using 80% ethanol and partitioned between n-hexane/H2O. The organic layer was treated with acid-base reaction and acetylation followed by fractionation in a flash chromatography. The acetyl xanthorrhizol fraction was hydrolysed and purified using flash chromatography. The fractionation process produced xanthorrhizol with 0.8% yield and 99.57% purity that was analyzed using gas chromatography with flame ionization detector (GC-FID). The results of 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR spectra of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS) analysis confirmed that the isolated compound was xanthorrhizol. It showed that xanthorrhizol has been successfully isolated using the present method. This research provides an alternative method for xanthorrhizol isolation and it gives a simpler fractionation method.