Screening, Extraction, and Quantification of Melatonin in Waste of Some Plants
*Hathama Razooki Hasan and Jwan Abdulmohsin Zainulabdeen
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq.
Abstract
Seven dry wastes from different plants were tested as a cheap sources of melatonin, which is a very important indoleamine compound. The melatonin was extracted from these plant wastes (which are considered as environmental pollutants) by using three different modified methods, then this compound was identified and quantified by HPLC-fluorescence system. The results indicated the presence of different amounts of melatonin in these wastes. Moreover the results approved that bitter orange peels is a rich source of melatonin (868.868 µg melatonin /gm dried peel) in comparison to the other tested wastes, while the waste of black tea gave the concentration of 164.333 µg melatonin /gm waste. The results of the current study also showed the presence of trace amounts of melatonin in ziziphus leaves and zahdi date palm fibers.
Key words: Melatonin, waste of plants , HPLC-Fluorescence detector.