Isolation and Characterisation of Haemanthamine Alkaloid from Daffolis Extract using NMR and Mass Spectroscopic Techniques

The recent surge in drug resistance and failure is belief to be a factor in the trend for the isolation of natural products from plants and other sources. This is largely due to the efficacy and safety of their components. Haemanthamine is an alkaloid of Amaryllidaceae family, the compound was reported to have lots of medicinal effects against microbes and some forms of cancers with significantly low or no side effects. The plant Daffodil is one of the commonest reservour of this alkaloid and used traditionally in the treatment of urinary disease, headache, fever, swelling growth, joint ailments, skin diseases, bruises, sprains, respiratory problems, gastrointestinal disorders among others. These medicinal potential of the plant stimulated our interest to isolate and characterized the Haemanthamine alkaloids from the plant using NMR and Mass Spectroscopic Techniques. The results obtained are in good agreement with the previously reported literatures which indicate that Haemanthamine was successfully isolated.