- Title
- Extraction of diallyl sulfides and other similar compounds from tulbaghia violacea, a South African plant, for potential use as devulcanizing agents
- Creator
- Sonti, Thembela Celia
- Subject
- Violaceae -- South Africa
- Subject
- Plant extracts Plant products Traditional medicine
- Date Issued
- 2018
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MTech
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/23338
- Identifier
- vital:30533
- Description
- Tulbaghia violacea is a plant that is commonly used for traditional medicine in the Eastern Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal Provinces of South Africa for treatment of ailments, such as fever, colds, asthma, tuberculosis, stomach-ache and cancer of the oesophagus. This plant has been found to be rich in sulfur-containing compounds that may display good potential as devulcanizing agents. Commonly used chemical devulcanizing agents are disulfides, such as diphenyl disulfide. These have been found to be relatively expensive compared to other methods of devulcanization. This study aimed to show that the sulfur- containing compounds extracted from the readily available Tulbaghia violacea plant can be used as devulcanizing agents. The presence of sulfur-containing compounds in the plant was positively identified by qualitative phytochemical analysis. Extraction of sulfur-containing compounds from the bulk plant material was successfully performed using the Soxhlet extraction method with a 2% 2-propanol in n-hexane solvent mixture. There was a positive identification of sulfur compounds in the crude extracts of the bulbs, roots and leaves. Diallyl disulfides (DADS) extracted from the plant were successfully quantified using normal phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that in a bulb crude extract of 9.89 mg/mL concentration, there was 7.74X10-2 mg/mL concentration of DADS. In the roots crude extract of 10.26 mg/mL concentration, there was 2.93X10-2 mg/mL concentration of DADS; and in leaves crude extract of 10.47 mg/mL concentration, there was 3.69X10-2 mg/mL concentration of DADS. The crude extracts were evaluated for their effectiveness as devulcanizing agents by reacting them with vulcanized 2,3-dimethyl-2-butene (TME), which was used as a model compound. A reverse phase HPLC method was used to identify crosslink species formed during vulcanization, and to monitor the broken crosslinks during devulcanization. It was observed that the di- and polysulfidic crosslinked vulcanized model compound species were not present in the devulcanized product. Furthermore monosulfidic crosslink species, a common end species of devulcanization, were observed to increase in concentration from the HPLC chromatograms. It was observed that the extracts from the bulbs and leaves of Tulbaghia violacea were more effective than the extract from the roots when applied to the vulcanized model compound. This study demonstrates that Tulbaghia violacea can be used as alternatives to petroleum-derived chemicals as devulcanizing agents.
- Format
- xii, 99 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Science
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
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NMU School of BioMolecular and Chemical Sciences
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