Phytochemical screening by using GC-MS and FTIR spectrum analysis of fixed oil from Sudanese Ziziphus spina Christi seeds

The current trend of using natural products from the plants, either as pure constituents or as standardized extracts, provides numerous opportunities for novel drugs, precisely the wild edible plants.  Ziziphus spina Christi plant is considered as one of the most important therapeutic and nutritional wild edible plants because of containing bioactive compounds.  Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate the petroleum ether Ziziphus spina Christi seed oil via using two analytical methods: GC-MS, and FTIR spectrometer. The seed oil was extracted by using Soxhlet apparatus. The GC-MS analysis indicated the presence of seventeen fatty acids, eight of them are majors constituents, namely 7-Octadecenoic acid, methyl ester [28.11%], Hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester [19.63%], Methyl stearate [16.97%], Eicosanoic acid, methyl ester [10.76%], Docosanoic acid, methyl ester [8.60%], cis-11-Eicosenoic acid, methyl ester [4.79%], Tetracosanoic acid, methyl ester [2.62%], and Squalene [2.20%]. On the other hand, the FTIR spectrum showed the presence of alcohols, phenols, alkanes, alkenes, carbonyls and Carboxylic acids and aromatic compounds in the extracts with different peak types and correspondences. The results of GC-MS and FTIR analysis showed the availability of bioactive compounds in the plant extracts, which could be responsible of the source of pharmaceutical value of Ziziphus spina Christi plant.