Abstract

Wheat has been used as food and folk medicine. We have earlier reported that the administration of ethyl acetate extract of ferrmented wheat at 300 mg/kg body weight have anti-trypanosomal activity. To better understand the active constituent for anti-trypanosomal properties, the crude extract was partially purified using column chromatography to give fractions A, B and C, which were further characterized by gas chromatographic – mass spectral (GC/MS) analysis. The fractions identified 12, 14 and 23 compounds respectively. The major volatile compounds were classified into oxygenated hydrocarbon (manool, hexadecyl acetate and butyl dodecanoate) and n-hydrocarbon (1- eicosene).

Key words: Wheat seeds, volatile compound, GC-MS, Retention index (KI).