Determination of Compounds inside Inoculated <i>Aquilaria malaccensis</i> Leaves by Soxhlet Extraction

Aquilaria is a special tree that has been awarded to the earth. Aquilaria spp. which belongs to the family Thymelaeceae is one of the most precious trees is the world. Agarwood or gaharu is the name of the resin produced by Aquilaria spp. Historically, agarwood has widely been used as medicine. It was also being used for perfumes, incense and religious purposes in Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, and Jewish societies. In order to discover the new uses of the agarwood, knowledge of the chemical constituents inside the plant need to be known. Aquilaria spp tree can be divided into two parts which is bark and leaves. Recently, several studies have been conducted to examine the chemical composition found in Aquilaria spp tree. However, there is still no specific detail documentation on the chemical compounds present in Aquilaria leaves. In this study, Soxhlet extraction method has been used to withdraw the compounds from the leaves. From the results obtained, it shows that extraction of compounds by using methanol was more effective. This was due to the higher polarity inside the methanol. Other than solvents, the samples preparation also gave an effect towards the final results. There were two different types of samples that have been used for this study which are fresh and dried A. malaccensis leaves. The obtaining results showed that more compounds have been extracted from the dried sample. It can be conclude that moisture content in the sample also plays a role in identification of compounds inside the A. malccensis leaves