Extract from white fir tree has many effects. It is known that it has protective cardiovascular function, antidiabetic effect, also affects the growth of cancer cells. These effects are primarily related to phenolic substances. Many in vivo and in vitro studies have shown that plant polyphenols have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, chemopreventive and neuroprotective activity. An increasing number of studies have also confirmed the effect of polyphenols on the level of glucose and the metabolism of fats. In addition to phenolic compounds, carbohydrates are also present in the extract, which do not have any special function and they should be removed for further use. Sugars are ballast and because of them less phenols are added to the pharmaceutical form. Consequently, the effectiveness of the medicine or the dietary supplement is therefore reduced.
Our task was to determine what is the equivalent of gallic acid and glucose in the samples extracted with different solvents and to estimate the ratio between the equivalents of gallic acid and glucose in individual samples. We used 8 different solvents for extraction of our extract. The starting point for the study was dry aqueous extract from branches of white fir in which we determined the gallic acid equivalent and glucose equivalent representing the proportion of phenols and the proportion of carbohydrates in the extract. In order to find out what was the actual content of phenols and carbohydrates in the Belinal, we first prepared an original sample. We weighed 200 mg of the extract and dissolved it in 100 mL of purified water, and then the solution was analyzed. The samples for extraction were prepared according to the following procedure: 1 g of dry Belinal extract was mixed with 10 mL solvent and shaken for 12 hours. Subsequently, the soluble and insoluble parts (sediment) were separated, dried to dryness and weighed. The dried fractions were dissolved in purified water. In the prepared samples, a carbohydrate assay test was performed using the sulfuric acid and phenol method and a test for determining the total phenols with the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent. After completing the experiments we collected data that showed the effectiveness of solvents for the removal of sugars. For the most effective, 80% methanol was shown, followed by 96% ethanol, 80% acetone and 90% acetone. At 80% methanol, the gallic acid equivalent was the highest, and the ratio between gallic acid and glucose equivalents was the highest, the glucose equivalent was among the smallest relative to other solvents. The glucose equivalence was only lower in ethyl acetate. The obtained results obtained with this master's thesis provide a good starting point for further optimization of the extraction.
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