Toxicity Assay of Baccaurea motleyana Mull. Arg. Wood Extracts (Rambai) and Chemical Compounds Evaluation for the Most Active Fraction

Abstract

Baccaurea motleyana Müll. Arg. (known locally as Rambai), as an edible fruit plant, is one of the plants native to tropical rain forest of East Kalimantan. This plant is spread in several Asian regions such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Traditionally Rambai is used to treat stomach and eye diseases and this plant has anticancer potential. The purpose of this study was to conduct initial screening for bioactivity by the Brine Shrimp Lethality Test (BSLT) method and to determine chemical composition of the most active fraction from the extracts of Rambai woods by the GC-MS analysis. The toxicity test against Artemia salina larvae showed that n-hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol fraction has LC50 values of 39.62, 11.29 and 661.39 ppm, respectively. Furthermore, the acetate fraction as the most active fraction was further fractionated using flash column chromatography and eight fractions were obtained E1, E2, E3, E4, E5, E6, E7, and E8 with LC50 values of 1000 >, 1000 >, 159.52, 138.10, 80.36, 46.06, 47.96 and 72.49 ppm, respectively. The results of GC-MS spectrum characterization of E6 (the most active fraction) showed the presence of alkanes (45.57%), alkenes (27.02%), aromatic compounds (20.90%), fatty acid/fatty acid esters (5.71%), and alcohol (0.78%). Eugenol, 4-ethyl-2-methoxy-phenol, and di-n-octyl phthalate are aromatic compounds that have potential as anticancer drugs.