GC- MS Analysis of Mussaenda roxburghii Hk.f.: A Folk Food Plant Used Among Tribes Of Arunachal Pradesh, India.

Introduction: Mussaenda roxhburgii Hk.f. shoot is widely used as folk food among the tribal people of Arunachal Pradesh. This study was carried out to establish the phytoconstituents of Mussaenda roxburghii shoot. Methods: Fresh shoot were collected from Mone forest of East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh and identified by the corresponding author himself. The samples were shade dried and pulverized to powder using a mechanical grinder. 500 g powder of the sample was soaked in ethanol for 72 hours with intermittent shaking then filtered through Whatmann No. 41 filter paper and concentrated under reduced pressure at 40°C by using rotary evaporator to obtain a viscous semi solid extract. Gas-Chromatography Mass Specrometry (GC-MS) analysis of the ethanol extracts was carried out in Shimadzu GCMS-QP-2010 plus system. The identification of compounds was performed by comparing their mass spectra with data from NIST 11 (National Institute of Standards and Technology, US) and WILEY 8. Results: The GCMS chromatogram of Mussaenda roxburghii shoot ethanolic extract gave forty nine phytochemical compounds. The most prevailing compounds were hydrocoumarin with 13.6%, hexadeconoic acid, 2-hexadecen-1-ol, 3, 7, 11, 15 tetramethyl [R-[R-) with 17.52%, ethyl ester with 6.24% and Vitamin E with 2.8%. The study gave some compounds with biological interest like gamma tocopherol, Vitamin E, Neophytadiene, Squalene etc. which have been reported to be Antitumur, Antiinflammatory, Antiaging, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, Antipyretic, perfume, pesticide and sunscreen.