Cholesterol plays a key role in the synthesis of bile acids and steroid hormones in the human body. However, excessively high levels are usually implicated in cardiovascular diseases. For this reason, it is essential to monitor exposure to high levels of it in products meant for human consumption, and this calls for the need to develop analytical methods to detect them. The use of Liebermann–Burchard reaction in this study has been explored to develop a simple, reliable, and robust quantitative colorimetric method to assay cholesterol, and hence provide a good alternative to chromatographic methods. The developed method was validated and used to determine the contents of cholesterol in selected dairy products on the Kumasi Metropolis market. The method demonstrated a good linearity (R2 = 0.996) over concentration range of 0.01–0.08 mg/ml. It was also shown to be precise and robust. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were determined to be 0.00430 mg/ml and 0.01304 mg/ml, respectively. Ten selected brands of canned milk (B1–B5) and fresh yoghurt products (A1–A5) were then assayed using the developed method. The results showed that three products from each category had cholesterol contents above the allowable content of 5 mg/100 g in dairy products. The study thus has proposed a simple colorimetric method that can be adopted by dairy products manufacturing facilities to rapidly determine cholesterol contents during manufacturing in order to monitor the safe consumption of their products, and eliminate or minimize possible future health hazards.

Introduction: The role of medicinal plants in meeting the healthcare needs of the populace, particularly in developing countries cannot be overemphasized. They provide holistic treatment and wellbeing due to a plethora of phytochemicals found in them. Among such is Tetrapleura tetraptera (Schum. & Thonn.) Taub., a multipurpose tree plant with varied biological activities. The current study was aimed at assessing the basic phytochemical constituents, free radical scavenging activity as well as the antimicrobial effect on various solvent extracts of leaves, fruit and stem bark of T. tetraptera of Ghanaian origin. Materials and Methods: Aqueous, 50% hydroethanolic and methanolic extracts were made from the leaves, fruits, and stem bark of T. tetraptera. They were assessed for the qualitative and quantitative phytochemical constituents, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, antimicrobial activity as well as the spectroscopic properties (Ultraviolet – visible and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy). Compounds in the methanolic extracts were evaluated using the gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Results: Tannins, reducing sugars, coumarins and flavonoids were present in all extracts while hydroethanolic and methanolic extracts were rich in phenols, tannins and flavonoids, especially for the stem bark. Leaf extracts had better antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Candida albicans and Proteus mirabilis. Conclusion: Generally, leaves and stem bark extracts of T. tetraptera are rich in biologically active phytochemicals, supporting their use in ethnomedicine and could be exploited further for other biological activities.