The Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Alkaloids from Papaya (Carica papaya L. var. Eksotika) Leaves

Since the isolation procedures are easy, many of the earliest pure compounds isolated with biological activitywere alkaloids. The nitrogen molecules in plant cells generally make the compound alkaline which makealkaloids exist in a salt form in plants. Thus, alkaloids are often extracted with water and/or acid solution systemand then recovered as crystalline material by treatment using a base. The alkaloid carpaine was extracted fromvarious part of Carica papaya L. var. Eksotika from field grown samples namely leaves, petiole and fruit peel,and from in vitro samples namely leaves, petiole, suspension cells and suspension liquid with only one artifact ofimpurity detected i.e. dehydrocarpaine II. Supercritical fluid extraction was analysed to obtain pure and highyield of carpaine compound as compared to conventional acid base extraction method. The ratio ofethanol/water/acetic acid used at 94.5:5:0.5 (v/v/v) was confirmed to be a better solvent system for carpaineextraction since only one pseudocarpaine i.e. dehydrocarpaine II was extracted together with carpaine. In thisstudy, the application of single fluid of carbon dioxide in supercritical fluid extraction procedure generated pureand higher yield of carpaine compound. Additional centrifugation step should have contributed to a higher purityof the extracted carpaine.