Comparative Study of Phytochemical and Nutrient Contents of Various Parts of Irvingia gabonensis (Aubry-Lecomte ex O’ Rorke) Baill. and Irvingia wombolu Vermoesen

Abstract

The phytochemical and nutrient constituents of seed, leaf, stem bark and root bark of Irvingia gabonensis (Aubry-Lecomte ex O’Rorke) Baill. and I. wombolu Vermoesen were determined and compared with a view to providing additional taxonomic characters for differentiating between the two species, and to supply useful information that would lead to increased utilization of parts of these species in ethnobotany as food and drug. Significant difference was established at p<0.05. The phytochemical analysis of Irvingia gabonensis revealed the greatest levels of alkaloid, anthraquinone, flavonoid, saponin and sterol in stem bark at 2.78±0.02%, 3.17±0.01%, 1.17±0.01%, 0.91±0.01% and 0.25±0.00% respectively; hydrogen cyanide and tannin in seed at 4.78±0.03 mg/kg and 1.25±0.00% respectively while terpenoid in the leaf was 0.45±0.00%. Least values of alkaloid, saponin, sterol, tannin and terpenoid were found in the root bark of I. wombolu at these values: 0.93±0.01%, 0.56±0.04%, 0.05±0.00%, 0.78±0.02% and 0.13±0.01% respectively. Nutrient determination of I. gabonensis and I. wombolu had carbohydrate as the highest nutrient with 68.44+0.04% in the root bark and 56.86±0.47% in the stem bark while lowest fat content was present in the root bark of I. gabonensis and stem bark of I. wombolu at 1.45±0.02% and 1.65±0.00% respectively. It was also observed that the seeds of Irvingia gabonensis and I. wombolu contained high percentage of crude protein at 17.43±0.03% and 16.61±0.01% respectively. These chemical characters could be applied as additional taxonomic parameters in distinguishing between these two species of Irvingia. In addition, the findings have shown that these various parts of both species could be useful in pharmaceutical preparations and ethnobotany as food and drug.