Extracción, caracterización y valoración de genipina a partir del fruto de la Genipa Americana

Abstract

This Project aims to explore an efficient extraction of high purity genipin from the green fruit of the tree Genipa americana, using a simple and inexpensive extraction method and the extracted genipin characterization through instrumental methods. Genipa americana tree, is native to Central America and northern South America, meaning a great potential for industry use of genipin fruits as an alternative of economical genipin extraction. Green fruits of Genipa Americana were collected from Buga, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. It was selected the liquid-liquid extraction as the extraction method, using the solvent ethyl acetate assisted with ultrasound, the separation is done through flash chromatography, the extracted genipin assessment was executed by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC) with photodiode Array (PDA) and its characterization through the following instrumental techniques: Electrospray Ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIS), UPLC and unidimensional and bidimensional Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). It was found that using a simple and inexpensive method as the liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate assisted with ultrasound and its separation through flash chromatography, it was achieved a high purity genipin extraction from the fruit of Genipa Americana, yielding 45.48%, a nearly value to more expensive methods.