Phytochemical screening and chromatographic (HPLC and GC) analysis of leaves of Cycas revoluta Thunb cultivated in Iraq

Cycas revoluta Thunb is considered the pervasive species of the genus Cycas is known for its diverse phytochemicals. This study employed Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) to characterize the phytochemical composition of the plant’s leaves. Leaves had been dried and subsequently extracted with solvents of n-hexane and ethyl acetate and the so-obtained fractions were subjected to qualitative screening of their phytochemicals. These two extracts were screened for the presence or absence of compounds by utilizing the tests for these compounds. These tests unveiled the presence of compounds in ethyl acetate extract, which are sterol, phenolic acid, terpenoid, tannin and flavonoid, whereas only terpenoid and sterol compounds have been detected as positive in n-hexane fraction.  It's worth mentioning that the absence of alkaloids in both leaf extracts contrasts with some previous reports on Cycas revoluta, which showed positive results when Wagner’s reagent was added. GC-MS and HPLC analyses confirmed the presence of the various phytochemicals’ classes in the extract. The chloroform and n-butanol fractions were not studied in this research, so it’s necessary to analyze these two samples by chromatographic techniques in the future. This work highlights the importance of C. revoluta as a source of bioactive compounds for further research.