Characterization of saponins from the leaves and stem bark of Jatropha curcas L. for surface-active properties

Summi Rai; Ananda Kafle; Hari Prasad Devkota; Ajaya Bhattarai

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15807

Characterization of saponins from the leaves and stem bark of Jatropha curcas L. for surface-active properties

Heliyon. 2023 Apr 28;9(5):e15807. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15807. eCollection 2023 May.

Authors

Summi Rai^{1

2}, Ananda Kafle³, Hari Prasad Devkota^{4

5}, Ajaya Bhattarai^{2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Water Resource Research and Development Centre, Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Lalitpur, Nepal.
² Department of Chemistry, Mahendra Morang Adarsh Multiple Campus, Tribhuvan University, Biratnagar, Nepal.
³ Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
⁴ Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kumamoto University, 5-1 Oe-honmachi, Kumamoto, Japan.
⁵ Pharmacy Program, Gandaki University, Pokhara, Nepal.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India.

Abstract

In this study, saponins extracted from leaves and stem bark of Jatropha curcas L. were investigated for surface-active properties. Conductivity and surface tension measurements revealed the micellar character of J. curcas saponin, with the average CMC, determined to be 0.50 g/L and 0.75 g/L for leaf and stem bark saponin, respectively. Stem bark saponin reduced the surface tension of water to a greater extent ( $γ_{C M C} =$ 37.65 mN/m) compared to leaf saponin ( $γ_{C M C} =$ 49.27 mN/m) indicating its efficient surface activity and potential detergency. pH measurement confirmed the weakly acidic nature of saponin with a pH value lying slightly below the range suitable for hair and skin. Stem bark saponin showed better cleaning ability, foaming ability and foam stability than leaf saponin, due to a sufficient reduction in the surface tension of water. The results obtained suggest that the saponin extracted from both the leaves and stem bark of J. curcas can be used as environmentally friendly alternatives to synthetic surfactants.

Keywords: Cleaning ability; Conductivity; Critical micelle concentration (CMC); Foaming ability; Jatropha curcas; Saponins; Surface tension.