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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Feb 10.
Published in final edited form as: Biotechnol Adv. 2015 Aug 15;33(8):1582–1614. doi: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2015.08.001

Table 5.

Strategies to identify bioactive compounds from plant extracts.

Strategy Characteristics Examples
Bioactivity-guided fractionation Consecutive fractionation cycles coupled with bioactivity testing in order to gradually enrich the active compounds and finally isolate the pure active principles. Atanasov et al. (2013a), Fakhrudin et al. (2014), Mabona et al. (2013), Nievergelt et al. (2010), Pathmasiri et al. (2005), Xiao et al. (2007), Zhang et al. (2001)
Metabolic profiling approach Comprehensive qualitative and quantitative metabolite analysis. Correlation with bioactivity data allows early stage dereplication (identification of already known bioactive constituents). Can also reveal potential synergistic effects. Gulcemal et al. (2013), Hou et al. (2010), Inui et al. (2012), Keerthi et al. (2014), Mao et al. (2012), Modarai et al. (2010), Sandasi et al. (2012)
Direct phytochemical isolation Isolation and identification of plant constituents without immediate evaluation of bioactivity. The focus is set on a comprehensive chemical characterization of the plant extract and isolation of novel natural products. Appendino et al. (2009), Conrad et al. (2004), Deng et al. (2014), Gao et al. (2011), Guo et al. (2013), Ramasamy and Saraswathy (2014), Su et al. (2005), Wiedenfeld et al. (2007)
Synergy-directed fractionation Similar to the bioactivity-guided fractionation; the generated fractions and compounds, however, are also tested for synergistic interactions. This approach aims to identify synergistically interacting natural products which could be missed with the traditional bioactivity-guided fractionation. Junio et al. (2011), Ndhlala et al. (2013), Nitteranon et al. (2011), Tafesh et al. (2011), Wang et al. (2014a)
Metabolism-directed approach An approach directed toward the identification of potential bioactive metabolites, which might not be present in the starting plant material but are formed as a result of metabolic transformation by the body or by intestinal microorganisms. Actis-Goretta et al. (2012), Akao et al. (2002), Atkinson et al. (2004), Chen et al. (2012), Guerrero et al. (2013), Ling et al. (2012), Wan et al. (2013), Xie et al. (2011)