Senna siamea is a medium-size, evergreen plant which has been utilized as a source of food, medicine and other agricultural purposes in different communities. However, there is dearth of information in regard to its possible biomedicinal uses, especially in Nigeria. Thus the preliminary phytochemical analysis and thin layer chromatography (TLC) separation was done using methanol, n-hexane and ethyl acetate (1:3:1) as solvent system while iodine vapour as spotting agent. The phytochemical screening of methanol extracts of leaves revealed the presence of cardiac glycoside, flavonoid, saponin, alkaloid and tannins while chloroform extracts of leaves revealed saponin only. Ethyl acetate and petroleum ether extracts revealed absence of all these phytochemicals. The chloroform, ethyl acetate and petroleum ether extracts of flower revealed absence of saponin, flavonoids, tannins and alkaloids but with traces of saponin and anthraquinones. TLC separation showed nine (9) spots each of chloroform and ethyl acetates, six (6) spots of methanol, three (3) spots of petroleum ether from leaves extracts. While, three (3) spots each of ethyl acetate and methanol, six (6) spots of chloroform were identified for flower extracts. No water spot separated from both leaves and flower extracts. From our findings, it can be concluded that S. siamea lam contains some significant phytochemicals that can exhibit desired therapeutic activities such as hypoglycemia, anti-arrthymia and antimicrobial. However, there is the need to conduct further pharmaceutical analyses on test extracts in order to establish these biomedical applications.
Nigeria is naturally blessed with both savannah and tropical rainforests vegetation and these offer a wide distribution of plants believed to possesses secondary metabolites which are responsible for treating or curing various diseases. Several researches have been carried out in order to explore and identify the chemical compositions responsible for various pharmacological activities in Nigerian medicinal plants. This paper discussed the meaning and historical development of medicinal plants. A brief account of phytochemicals (alkaloids and flavonoids) were also given. The plants presented in this paper confirmed the pharmacological activities of these plants and includes;
Extracts of herbal plant samples which include leaves and seeds of Calotropis procera and Garcinia kola respectively were investigated for phytochemical content and tested against clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (in-vitro). 95% methanolic extract of the plant samples were obtained by percolation. The anti-mycobacterial activity was determined using disc diffusion method; Anova single factor was statistically used for the analysis. The crude methanol extract of Calotropis procera leaf and Garcinia kola seed reveal a final weight of 8.1g and 19.1g, tannins and flavonoids were the phytochemical compounds found to be present in all the plant samples. Rifampicin antibiotic was used as control and the antimycobacterial activity for the plant sample shows that C. procera has the highest zone of inhibition followed by G. kola, the minimum inhibitory concentration ranging from 500-2000ug/ml. The M.I.C of 95% methanol extract in the order mention above are 500-2000ug/ml and 1000-2000ug/ml. The result support the local use of these plants in the treatment of tuberculosis and it is suggested that these plants may have therapeutic value in the treatment of Tuberculosis. However, further investigations should be focused toward isolating chemical constituent that are responsible for pharmacological activities and identifying the compound eliciting the activities observed in the plant samples
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