DETERMINATION OF BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS INCLUDING GC-MS INVESTIGATION OF HEXANE AND DICHLOROMETHANE EXTRACTS AND THE TRACE METAL COMPOSITION OF URTICA DIOICA

The present study was carried out to characterize the bioactive constituents present in hexane and dichloromethane extracts of whole plant of Urtica dioica using GC-MS analysis. The chemical compositions of these extracts was investigated after 2 steps of purification (silica gel-column chromatography and thin layer chromatography ) using Perkin ? Elmer Gas Chromatography ? Mass Spectrometry, while the mass spectra of the compounds found in the extracts was matched with the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) library. On the other hand, metal content of Urtica dioica was analyzed, therefore, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique was used for the determination of the major trace elements in the plant and a microwave digestion procedure followed by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) was carried out for the determination of some important heavy metal content in our sample. Ten major phytochemical compounds were identified in the hexane extract which are mainly fatty acids and phenolic compounds, while eleven different compounds were found in the dichloromethane extract: they were essentially terpenoids, alkaloids and phenolic compounds. Thus the XRF assay shows that this plant contains metals with significant metabolic role primarily in the prevention of certain diseases such as asthma, in addition, the concentration of different heavy metals was found in healthy and normal quantities in the plant. All these results confirm that the U. dioica is a heartfelt source of bioactive compounds, which justifies its use in traditional medicine to treat various diseases.