ANALYSIS OF CRUDE EXTRACTS AND FRACTIONS OF BRAZILIAN POLYPODIACEAE BY HIGH-RESOLUTION GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS-SPECTROMETRY .1. TRITERPENES

Characterization of individual components in plant extracts through cl assical phytochemical methods is a multi-step procedure which is both costly and time-consuming, Also significant amounts of extract are req uired and detection of minor compounds is frequently not possible, The method described in this work involves direct analysis of crude or pr efractioned apolar or medium-polar extracts by high-resolution gas chr omatography and computerized high resolution gas chromatography-mass s pectrometry, followed by co-injections of the crude extract with certi fied standards on capillary columns of different polarities, The effec tiveness of the method is illustrated for several species of Polypodia ceae (spores and rhizomes), allowing easy monitoring of compound-type distributions (e.g. triterpenes) and detection of structures present a t trace levels (for example, 22,29,30-trisnorhopane).