What solvent should i use to dissolve a herbal extract - difficulty in dissolving lyophilised herbal extract for use in culture (Jul/07/2008 )
Hi. I am currently trying to find a suitable solvent to dissolve a powdered herbal extract that i've purchased recently. i've tried methanol, DMSO, ethanol, acetone and water but none of the solvent can completely dissolve the powder. I need to dissolve the extract so that i can add it to my cell culture but since it cannot be completely dissolved, i am having difficulty in determining the concentration. The extract contains a mixture of many different extracts including egg yolk, mushroom, plant extracts. i would really appreaciate it if anyone can give me any idea or suggestions on how i can dissolve the powder or another way of determining the concentration? Thank you so much.
Why don't you try chloroform or chloroform:methanol mixture? That should take care of both lipids and proteins in your formulation. I am not certain about the other plant extracts - their solubility would depend on their chemical nature and some compounds dissolve in acidic pH while others in alkaline; I am sure you would know that already. Hope this helps.
Glycerol? But do remember to do adequate controls to test the effect of the solvent.
I would beware of chloroform, it will probably kill your cells. I would separate the powder into separate tubes and make separate extracts with DMSO, Methanol, and PBS (or water) for testing. Chances are that the active ingredient that you are looking for will dissolve in one of these solvents. I doubt there will be one solvent that will dissolve it all. If the herbal extract was meant for oral administration there are probably plenty of fibrous materials that need to be metabolized in the gut.
-d