Abstract
This study investigated solvent effects on the phytochemical composition of Quassia undulata leaves a medicinal plant used in treating arrays of diseases including fever and cough. The leaves were collected, washed, air-dried, pulverized and evaluated for some inherent phytochemicals using four different solvent systems based on their polarities. The solvents are methanol, acetone, ethyl acetate and chloroform. The methanol extract was found to have the highest number of secondary metabolites (saponins, tannins, flavonoids, steroids, coumarins, anthraquinones, alkaloids and phenols). None of the extracts tested positive for the presence of phlobatannins, terpenoids and emodins. The methanol extract was further analyzed quantitatively for some of the determined phytochemicals. Tannins had a concentration of 3.131 mg of catechin equivalents per 100 mg sample (mg CE/100g), alkaloids-5.200 %, total phenolics-11.828 mg of gallic acid equivalents per gram of extract (mg GAE/g), flavonoids-8.074 mg of quercetin equivalents per gram of extract (mg QE/g) while 0.673 % saponins were detected. The presence of these secondary metabolites might justify the ethnomedicinal uses of Quassia undulata leaves as their bioactivity has been found to be dependent on the solvent used for extraction.
Highlights
Plants are known to produce a wide variety of chemical compounds which do not contribute to their growth and development directly
This study investigated solvent effects on the phytochemical composition of Quassia undulata leaves a medicinal plant used in treating arrays of diseases including fever and cough
Tannins had a concentration of 3.131 mg of catechin equivalents per 100 mg sample, alkaloids - 5.200 %, total phenolics - 11.828 mg of gallic acid equivalents per gram of extract, flavonoids - 8.074 mg of quercetin equivalents per gram of extract while 0.673 % saponins were detected. The presence of these secondary metabolites might justify the ethnomedicinal uses of Quassia undulata leaves as their bioactivity has been found to be dependent on the solvent used for extraction
Summary
Plants are known to produce a wide variety of chemical compounds which do not contribute to their growth and development directly. Commonly called Oriji by the Yoruba ethnic group of Nigeria and Akan-asante hotoro by Ghanaians is a perennial shrub or a small to fairly large tree of the family Simaroubaceae (Adeniyi and Lawal, 2020; Odubanjo et al, 2018a). It grows in grasslands of subtropical and tropical Africa, America, Australia and Asia (Iko and Eze, 2012). The vast array of therapeutic or medicinal properties of medicinal plants can be linked to the presence of phytochemicals
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