[stevepluto]

Hi. I'm actually new to this field so any help is much appreciated.

Based on literature, MeOH is the prefered solvent for exhaustive extraction of secondary metabolites from plants. Polarity of MeOH and EtOH does not differ much and MeOH is toxic - Is there any advantages conferred by MeOH compared to EtOH or it's simply the authors' preferences? Would the spectrum of compounds extracted by MeOH and EtOH almost similar?

In most cases, 70 or 80% MeOH was used instead of 100% MeOH. Does the addition of water helps in extracting compounds that are more polar than MeOH? Is there any other reasons why MeOH was mixed with water for extraction purposes?

Thanks.

[JGK]

Possibly a combination of cost and Govt. regulations when dealing with large quantities of ethanol.