Isolation of major alkaloids from Mitragyna Speciosa (Kratom) / Mohd Firdaus Ahmad Akhibi

Mitragyna speciosa (Rubiaece) is a tropical plant indigenous to Thailand and Malaysia.
The leaves of this plant, known as “Kratom” in Thailand and “Biak-Biak” in Malaysia,
were traditionally used by many laborers as a stimulant like coca or as a substitute for
opium. But the use of this plant is now illegal in these countries because of its narcotism.
The unique properties of this medicinal plant have attracted many researchers over the
last fifty years. An alkaloidal extract was prepared from the leaves of Mitragyna speciosa
with chloroform. After extraction, the major alkaloid was isolated by using
chromatographic technique such as column chromatography. Purification process was
carried out by using Preparative Thin Layer Chromatography. The structure of pure
alkaloid was elucidated by using various spectroscopic methods including NMR, GCMS, FTIR and UV. From the research, the structure of major alkaloid cannot be seen.
This is because a lot of impurities in the samples preparation even though the purification
technique had been used. As a conclusion, an alkaloid was successfully isolated. Base on
the comparison of proton NMR result and that of in the Literature Review found that they
are not the same alkaloid. However, the structure of the alkaloid cannot be elucidated due
to the presence of other contaminants in an alkaloid sample.