PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

A few reports on the phytochemical analysis of the organic solvent extract of Acmella uliginosa (Sw.) Cass. (A. uliginosa) have been published previously. Water extract is preferable depending on the intended final applications of the extract, such as those for the food and pharmaceutical industries. Thus, this current study focused on the phytochemical study of water extract from various parts of A. uliginosa which was collected from Kelantan, Malaysia. The sample of A. uliginosa flowers, leaves, stems and roots were converted into powder form and extracted with water macerated extraction procedures. The crude extracts were freeze-dried, and the extracts obtained were analysed using gas chromatography mass spectrometry. More than 80 chemical compounds were identified from the flowers, leaves, stems and roots of water extracts of A. uliginosa. The bioactive compounds that were identified include alkaloids, terpenoids, phenolic compounds and steroids. This study also revealed that the most abundant compound in both flowers and leaves were spilanthol, whereas linoleic acid and 2-Furancarboxaldehyde, 5-methyl- were identified as the highest compound for stems and roots; respectively. This finding suggested that water extracts of various parts of A. uliginosa are good sources of many bioactive compounds that might have pharmacological potential and high therapeutic value. Further experiments are needed to prove that all parts of the water extract of A. uliginosa do have therapeutic value.