> I am also looking for references or personal techniques that have been
> successful in extracting plant compounds such as plant oils and compounds
> such as alkaloids.

> Brian Craig
> bncr…@bud.peinet.pe.ca

I don’t have my reference for medicinal plants by species, but a look in a
medicinal chemistry library might help.

As for extraction techniques, the oil method referred to in another post
works.  A second method for extracting essentioal oils is steam distillation.
Simple acid-base extractions also work (e.g. homogenise the sample, add
0.1 N HCl, shake well, filter and basify with bicarbonate, and extract into
a suitable organic solvent.)
Use of acids and bases may also destroy or alter target compounds, and is
therefore less useful.

s banerian

–
—
Steve Banerian                      
sp…@eskimo.com                        
bb…@scn.org

N. Craig) wrote:
> I am looking for a list of medicinal plants by species.  If any one can
> help in providing a list or a source, it would be very helpful.

> I am also looking for references or personal techniques that have been
> successful in extracting plant compounds such as plant oils and compounds
> such as alkaloids.

> Brian Craig

> bncr…@bud.peinet.pe.ca

The medicinal plants by species should be in a number of books at your
nearest med. faculty library. For example there is one here called "plants
for medicine" by Collins et al., but is specific for Australia. I have seen
a number of books with a more general outlook, but I can’t think of their
names.

The normal method for separating plant derived oils etc., is to place a
homogenised sample of the plant in a suitable oil, into which the desired
compounds should dissolve.  The resultant mixture is then run down a TLC
column, which will eventually separate the constituents (in practice much
more difficult than it sounds).
—
Joshua Saunders, Dept of Pharmacology, University of Sydney.

josh…@blackburn.med.su.oz.au