Direct discrimination of Parmotrema tinctorum from various location by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

Parmatrema tinctorum collected from various locations of Gohtong Jaya, Genting Highlands, Pahang underwent IR analysis. The analysis is aimed to discriminate the chemical constituents of P. tinctorum living in pristine and polluted area. Based on the FTIR analysis, there is a close resemblance in the absorption bands of all collected samples but differ in terms of their intensity. This suggested all samples produce similar chemical constituents but varies in numbers of metabolites. Student's t test was then performed on the IR spectra and results showed that there is a significant difference between P. tinctorum collected from pristine area and roundabout with heavy traffic. These preliminary results suggested other additional chemical constituents were produced in addition to depsides, depsidones and other aromatic polyketides by P. tinctorum living in the polluted area. Further isolation work is currently on going to identify the secondary metabolites.