Abstract
The leaf epidermis of Icacina trichantha, a quintessential medicinal tropical plant was investigated with the aid of light microscopy and the chemical constituents of its leaf and root were investigated using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). Hitherto, leaf epidermis data is missing and similarly, the chemical analysis of the leaf and root of the plant is undertaken in a single study for the first time. The leaf epidermis characters with which the species can be defined include paracytic and diacytic stomatal types, irregular epidermal cell shape together with angular or curved anticlinal wall patterns. However, the quantitative data appeared to overlap thus providing the range of values of both the measured and counted features. N-hexane extract of the root is rich in reducing sugars, tannins, steroids, glycosides, terpenoids and flavonoids while GC-MS analysis revealed 11 and 3 significant esterified bioactive components in the leaf and tuberous root respectively with dodecanoic acid being most abundantly present (47.85%-54.10 %) but some chemical confined to specific areas are trichothec-9-en-8-one (47.73 %) in the root and 9-octadecenoic acid (25.05 %) in the leaf. The result of this study will assist in identifying the plant even if its parts are fragmentary and also be helpful in screening the plant for drug.
Highlights
Icacina trichantha Oliver belongs to the family Icacinaceae (Hassler, 2020)
Fresh samples of I. trichantha were collected from different locations across Southern Nigeria (Fig. 1), and the samples were dried and authenticated at the Lagos University Herbarium (LUH)
The model of the Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) used for mass spectral identification of the hexane extracts of the leaves and root of I. trichantha was an Agilent 6890 interfaced to a 5973 mass selective detector
Summary
Icacina trichantha Oliver belongs to the family Icacinaceae (Hassler, 2020). It is one of the five species The fruits are tomentose on the surface, ellipsoid to globose in shape and they are about 2.5 cm long (Hutchinson and Dalziel, 1958; Agyakwa and Akobundu, 1998) It is sometimes locally abundant and troublesome as a weed in some parts of Nigeria. The presence of phytochemicals such as flavonoids, terpenoids, tannins, glycosides, reducing sugars, steroids have been reported in different extracts and parts of I. trichantha (Onakpa et al, 2014; Otun et al, 2015) These phytochemicals may be responsible for the antihyperglycemic, anticonvulsion, sedative, analgesic, and antimicrobial properties ascribed to the plant (Dalziel, 1937; Burkill, 1985; Asuzu and Abubakar, 1995b; Asuzu and Aforonwa, 2008; Onakpa and Asuzu, 2013; Onakpa et al, 2014; Alawode et al, 2018). These two studied character sources of the plants (anatomy and chemistry) are important data sources for species identification and utilization of the plant as a source of drug
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