ISOLATION AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF NOVEL TERPENOIDS FROM DIFFERENT PLANT SPECIES: A REVIEW.

Terpenoids are the most essential compounds biosynthesized by plants as secondary metabolites. It is a diverse and vast class of naturally occurring organic compounds and are the derivatives of terpenes having simple and multi-cyclic rings in their structure. These are though found in small/trace amounts in plants, but they play an indispensable role in the survival of plants in the environment. These are used by the plants as a shield against internal and external stresses and for many of the basic functions in the development and growth and by humans as anti-bacterial agents, as anti-carcinogenic agents, as flavors, fragrances and drugs. This review paper will explain the extraction and isolation of terpenoids from different parts of plants i.e. leaves, stem, roots and other vegetal parts of plants. Further the review will focus on the structural characterization of terpenoids extracted from plants by different researchers and the methods they used for the separation and structural characterization of these compounds and their structures drawn with the help of NMR data. The extracted and characterized compounds were terpenoids, triterpenoids, nortriterpenoids, monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and macro cyclic monoterpenes. These compounds were checked for their medicinal activity, cytotoxicity and their bioassay were also considered, where these compounds showed that they can be used as medicinal compounds as well as the bioassay confirmed their role as protective agents of the plants. Overall, eleven research articles have been considered in this review and the focus   is on the novel terpenoids that have been extracted, isolated and characterized by different means. Apart from novel terpenoids the other known compounds have been studied and their activity has also been reported. 

Keywords: Terpenoids, Characterization, Extraction, NMR, Plant.