AbstractSolanum plants (Solanaceae) are renowned source of nutraceuticals and have widely been explored for their phytochemical constituents. This work investigated the effects of kosmotropic and chaotropic salts on the number of phytochemicals extracted from the leaves of a nutraceutical plant, Solanum retroflexum, and analyzed on the ultra-performance liquid chromatography hyphenated to a quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometer (UPLC-QTOF-MS) detector. Here, a total of 20 different compounds were putatively characterized. The majority of the identified compounds were polyphenols and glycoalkaloids. Another compound, caffeoyl malate was identified for the first time in this plant. Glycoalkaloids such as solanelagnin, solamargine, solasonine, β-solanine (I) and β-solanine (II) were found to be extracted by almost all the salts used herein. Kosmotrope salts, overall, were more efficient in extracting polar compounds with 4 more polyphenolic compounds extracted compared to the chaotropes. Chaotropes were generally more selective for the extraction of less polar compounds (glycoalkaloids) with 3 more extracted than the kosmotropes. The chaotrope and the kosmotrope that extracted the most metabolites were NaCl and Na2SO4, respectively, with 12 metabolites extracted for each salt. This work demonstrated that a comprehensive metabolome of S. retroflexum, more than what was previously reported on the same plant, can be achieved by application of kosmotropes and chaotropes as extractants with the aid of the Aqueous Two Phase Extraction approach. The best-performing salts, Na2SO4 or NaCl, could potentially be applied on a commercial scale, to meet the ever-growing demand of the studied metabolites. The Aqueous Two Phase Extraction technique was found to be efficient in simultaneous extraction of multiple metabolites which can be applied in metabolomics.
Validation of aqueous two-phase extraction method
