Chemical characterization of Sorghum bicolor leaf with antisickling activity

Sorghum bicolor is an important cereal and a staple crop in Africa, where it has been used traditionally by healers for the treatment of anemia and other health conditions. Interest in the plant typically focuses on the grain, but the leaves have recently been used in combination with three additional plants in the phytomedicine Nicosan, approved in Nigeria for the treatment of sickle cell disease. The ingredients of Nicosan were later found to be reducible to S. bicolor leaf and this new formula is currently under investigation for potential use in the treatment of sickle cell disease in the United States. In this research, both the raw botanical and the active botanical extract of S. bicolor leaf were chemically characterized as a first step in the standardization of a phytomedicine using a combination of various chromatographic and spectrometric techniques, including normal pressure chromatography, LC/UV/MS, and NMR methods. For standardization of the botanical materials, the characterized major compounds were quantitated using LC/UV/MS methods developed. In order to evaluate the safety of the phytomedicine, an analytical method for determination of the toxic cyanogenic glycoside dhurrin was also developed and validated. The results showed that the raw botanical contains high levels of dhurrin, but complete degradation of dhurrin occurred during the extraction process of the phytomedicine. To ensure the absence of cyanide, the breakdown product of dhurrin, cyanide content was analyzed using inorganic anion derivatization and GC/MS. The purpose of this investigation was to characterize a promising phytomedicine, which may provide relief to the debilitating pain suffered by patients with sickle cell disease.