FTIR ANALYSIS AND REVERSE PHASE HIGH PERFORMANCE CHROMATOGRAPHIC DETERMINATION OF PHENOLIC ACIDS OF HYPNEA MUSCIFORMIS (WULFEN) J.V.LAMOUROUX.

Sumayya S S, Bosco Lawarence, Dinesh Babu KV, Murugan K*

Sea weeds have been one of the promising resources of biologically active metabolites and their extraction has significantly expanded in the last few decades. Hypnea, a proven candidate among the sea weeds for its rich mucopolysaccharides. In this study, Hypnea musciformis (Wulfen) J.V.Lamouroux. was screened for phenolic acid profile and further subjected to FTIR analysis of the different solvent extracts to know the functional groups.Reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method with gradient elution was adapted to fractionate and quantify free phenolic acids (gallic, vanillic, chlorogenic, sinapic, p-coumaric, ferulic, hydroxybenzoic, phloroglucinol, catechol and cinnamic acid). Chromatographic separation was performed with C18 column and detection was conducted at the wavelengths 254, 278 and 300 nm according to the absorption maxima of the analyzed compounds. Validation procedures were conducted and the method was proven to be precise, accurate and sensitive. The experimental results revealed high concentrations of sinapate, coumarate, phloroglucinol and ferulate, whereas,other phenolic acids were in low concentrations. Sinapate was established as the dominating phenolic acid. Diverse FT-IR peaks for each solvent extract has been determined and identified their specific functional groups. Remarkable correlation was found between the phenolics and FTIR peaks. 1743 cm-1 may be considered as optimal indicator of phenolics concentration. FTIR spectroscopy is recommended as rapid and reliable tools to predict the phytochemical composition of herbals. Further studies are warranted to isolate, purify the lead molecule and to evaluate its biological potentialities.