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African marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) is known for its high therapeutic value besides its ornamental uses. The beneficial effect of herbal medicine typically results from the combination of secondary metabolites such as glycosides, alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, gums, etc., produced in the herbs. Thus, plants with medicinal values, their derivatives and characterized secondary phytometabolites are becoming popular as an alternative to synthetically produced allopathic systems of medicine. In the present investigation, essential oil extracted from dry flowers of African marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) by hydro-distillation was subjected to screening for its phytometabolites with the help of FTIR which revealed presence of major functional groups viz., aliphatic amines, phenols alkanes and nitro compounds etc. The samples were further subjected to mass spectral ionization technique, Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART) which elucidated the presence of piperitenone, ocimenone, umbellulone, terpinolene, α-pinene, thujene, sabinene, α-terpinolene and piperitone, etc., as the main components of the alkaloids, terpenes and phenolic compounds recored by FTIR analysis in the marigold oil.
Keywords: Secondary phytometabolite, Tagetes erecta, Marigold oil, Hydro-distillation, African marigold, FTIR and DART- MS.