Metod of extraction of Dioscorea alata Essay

In the experiment, yam or its scientific names is Dioscorea alata is used as the plant to be extracted. Yam is a tuberous root vegetable which the tubers are usually bright lavender in color. The scientific name Dioscorea refers to the classical Greek writer on medicine, Dioscorides, and served as a reminder that many yams have medicinal as well as culinary uses (Davidson, A., & Jaine, T., 2014). Hundreds of yam species exist and many of them have discovered medicinal applications. For example Chinese used yam species as a liver tonic while Indian used yam as a remedy for impotence and infertility (O'Mathuna, D., & Larimore, W., 2010).
Extraction is extraction is one of the ways to separate a desired substance when it is mixed with the others. The mixture is in a contact with a solvent in which the substance is soluble, but the other substances present are insoluble (CHEMICOOL.COM, 2014). The effective extraction of a plant compound or interest compound from natural sources depends on solubility, stability and functional group consideration. Extraction is one of the methods to obtain a crude plant extract (Cannell, R.J.P., 1998). Extraction in terms of pharmaceutically, involves the separation of medicinally active portions of plant or animal tissues from the inactive or inert components by using selective solvents in standard extraction procedures. The main extraction methods are maceration, percolation, digestion, infusion and decoction.
In this experiment, soxhelet extraction is done which the type is percolation. The water is used as the solvent in the extraction. A soxhlet extractor has three main sections which are a percolator, a thimble and siphon mechanism. Percolator has functions as percolator which circulates the solvent. A thimble functions to retain the solid to be laved and also a siphon mechanism which periodically empties the thimble. As the precaution, in soxhelet procedure, the boiling point of the solvent must be set up carefully as the solvent might be over boil. For the water boiling point that has been used as solvent, the temperature of the heating mantle is about 75degreesC. The connecting tube for water in and out also must be correctly connected. This is to avoid leaking of the water and affect the water movement to be condensed.
After soxhelet extraction, the rotary evaporator is used. It is used to remove the solvent from sample through evaporation process. The rotary evaporator is done by put the round bottom flask in the heated fluid bath to heat the sample. The temperature set and the actual temperature are both 69degreesC. The crude extract is obtained after the removal of solvent has done. The crude extract is the active compound or active ingredient that has been extract in the yam. The active compound contain the the ingredient in a pharmaceutical drug that is biologically active. As for the precaution, the heated fluid bath must be not touch during experiment because it might be too hot. The vacuum pump used also must be monitor so that the pump is not too hot during operation.