ISSN: 2226-6348
Open access
The leaves of six medicinal plant species Anacardium occidentale, Azadirachta indica, Carica papaya, Cymbopogon citratus, Psidium guajava and Vernonia amygdaline, widely used in Abia State, Nigeria were analyzed with a view to compare their phytochemical and mineral constituents. Result indicates that the bioactive contents of the leaves varied significantly (p< 0.05) among the medicinal plants; Cymbopogon citratus contained significantly higher concentration of phenols (0.27a±0 01), steroids (0.37a±0.02) and flavonoids (0.84a±0.02) than the other medicinal plants used for this study while there was no significant difference in phenol concentration between Cymbopogon citratus and Vernonia amgydalina. The concentration of alkaloids was significantly higher in Vernonia amgydalina (2.78a±0.02) than other species. Pisdium guajava had the lowest concentration of alkaloids (2.78a±0.02). While the result of minerals shows that the plants contained Ca, Mg, Na, K, and P. Vernonia amygdaline, Carica papaya and Anacardium occidentale have highest amount of Ca (0.21a±0.02 , 0.20a±0.02 and 0.19a±0.02) respectively and there was no significant difference in their calcium contents. Azadirachta indica had highest significant amount of Mg (0.45a±0.01) and K (0.34a±0.01) while Cymbopogon citratus had the least of all the mineral contents analyzed Vernonia amygdalina,Carica papaya and Anacardium occidentale had highest amount of Ca(0.21a±0.02, 0.20a±0.02 and 0.19a±0.02) respectively, however, there was no significant difference of calcium contained in the three species. Carica papaya had highest significant amount of phosphorus (0.38a±0.02) and there was no significant difference between Vernonia sp (0.30b±0.01), Psidium guajava (0.28b±0.01) and Anacardium sp (0.27b±0.02). Azadirachta indica had the highest significant amount of Mg(0.45a±0.01) and K(0.34a±0.01) and Vernonia sp highest significant amount of Na ( 0.46a±0.01) while Cymbopogon sp had the lowest amount of Mg( 0.13e±0.01), Na (0.11e±0.01) , K ( 0.18c±0.01) and P ( 0.15c±0.01).
Abulude, F. O., and Folorunso, R. A. (2003). Preliminary studies on millipede: Proximate
composition, nutritionally valuable minerals and phytate contents. Global J. Agric. Sci., ` 2: 6-71.
Ali, S. S., Kasoju, N., Luthra, A., Singh, A., Sharanabasava, H., Sahu, A., and Bora, U. (2008).
Indian medicinal herbs as source of antioxidants. Food Resource International, 41: 1-15. AOAC. (2004). Official methods of analysis of Association of Official Analytical Chemists
15th Edn., Washington D.C. USA. pp: 200-210.
Baravalia, Y., Kaneria, M., Vaghasiya, Y., Parekh, J., and Chanda, S. (2009). Evaluation of
antioxidant and antibacterial activity of Diospyros ebenum Roxb. Leaf (Ebenaceae).
Turkey Journal of Biology, 33: 159-164
Brighente, I. M. C., Dias, M., Verdi, L. G., and Pizzolatti, M. G. (2007). Antioxidant activity and total phenolic content of some Brazilian species. Pharm. Biol., 45: 156-161
Brown, A. C. (2007). Chemistry of Food Composition: Understanding Food: Properties and
preparation 3rd Edn., Wadsworth Publishing Co., United States, pp. 46-49.
Dharmananda, S. (2003). Gallnuts and the uses of Tannins in Chinese Medicine. In:
Proceedings of institute for Traditional Medicine, Portland, Oregon
Edeoga, H. O., and Eriata, D. O. (2001). Alkaloid, Tannin and Sapnin contents of some
medicinal plants. Journal of Medicinal Aromatic Plant Science, 23:344-349.
Edeoga, H. O., Okwu, D. E., and Mbaebie, B. O. (2003). Minerals and Nutritive values of some
Nigerian medicinal plants. Journal of Medicinal Aromatic Plant Science, 25:1010- 1015.
Edeoga, H. O., Okwu, D. E., and Mbaebie, B. O. (2005). Phytochemical constituents of some
Nigeria medicial plants. African Journal of Biotechnology, 4(7):685: 688.
Federal Ministry of Sciences and Technology. (2008). Medicinal plants of Nigeria. South east Nigeria vol. 1, Nigeria Natural Development Agency. Lisda consulting, Lagos, Nigeria. Pp 1-204.
Estrada, A., Katselis, G. S., Laarveid, B., and Barl, B. (2000). Isolation and evaluation of
Immunological adjuvant activities of saponins from Polygaja senega L. Comparative Immunology. Microbiol. Infect., Dis. 23: 27-43.
Geyid, A., Dawi, A., Asfaw D., Zewdneh, M., Frehiwot, T., Tesfaye K. U., Kelbessa, U.,
Kidst, Y., Tekle, B., Bisrat, H. M., and Mulugeta, G. (2005). Screening of some medicinal plants of Ethiopia for their anti-microbial properties and chemical profiles. Journal of Ethanopharmcology, 97: 421-427.
Gordon, D. M. (2001). Geographical structure and host specificity in bacteria and the
Implications for tracing the source of coliform contamination. Microbiology. 147: 1079- 1085.
Ivanova, D., Gerova, D., Chervenkov, T., and Yankova, T. (2005). Polyphenols and antioxidant
capacity of Bulgarian medicinal plants. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 96: 145-150.
Lu, Y., and Foo, Y. L. (2001). Antioxidant activities of polyphenols from sage
(Salvia officinalis). Food Chemistry, 75: 197-202
Misra, A. (2009). Studies on biochemical and physiological aspects in relation to phyto-
medicinal qualities and efficacy of the active ingredients during the handling, cultivation and harvesting of the medicinal plants. Journal Medicinal Plants Resource., 3: 1140-1146.
Murthy, K. N. C., Singh, R. P., and Jayaprakasha, G. K. (2002). Antioxidant activities of grape
(Vitis vinifera) pomace extracts. Journal Agriculture of Food Chemistry, 50: 5909-5914.
Norton, B. W. (2000). The Significance of Tannins in Tropical Animal Production. Tannins in
Livestock and Human Nutrition. ACIAR Proceedings No. 92 pp14-23.
Obadoni, B. O., and Ochuko, P. O. (2001). Phytochemical studies and comparative efficacy of
the crude extractsof some Homostatic plants in Edo and Delta States of Nigeria. Global J.
Pure Appl. Sci. 8:203-208
Okwu, D. E. (2001). Evaluation of the Chemical Composition of Indigenous Species and
Flavouring Agents. Global Journal of Pure and Applied Science, 7 (3): 455- 459.
Okwu, D. E., and Ekeke, O. (2003). Phytochemical screening and mineral composition of chewing sticks in south Eastern Nigeria. Global journal of Pure and Applied Science, 9: 235-238.
Patrick, E. E., Atangwho, I. J., Eyong, U. E., and Egbung, G. E. (2008). The Antidiabetic Efficacy of
Combined Extracts from Two Continental Plants: Azadirachta indica (A. Juss) (Neem) and Vernonia amygdalina (Del.) (African Bitter Leaf) American Journal of Biochemistry and Biotechnology 4 (3): 239-244.
Salazar, R., Pozos, M. E., Cordero, P., Perez, J., Salinas, M. C., and Waksman, N. (2008).
Determination of the antioxidant activity of plants from Northeast Mexico. Pharm. Biol., 46: 166-170.
Shah, M. T., Begum, S., and Khan, S. (2009). Pedo and Biogeochemical studies of mafic and ultra
mafic rocks in the Mingora and Kaba areas, Swat. Pak. Environ. Earth Sci., 60: 1091-1102.
Shrikumar, S., and Ravi, R. K. (2007). Approaches towards development and promotion of herbal drugs. Phcog. Rev., 1: 180-184.
Sofowara, A. (2006). Medical plants and traditional medicine in Africa. Rep. edition, Spectrum
Books Ltd., Ibadan, pp. 150-150.
Tedong, L., Dimo, T., Dzeufiet, P. D. D., Asongalem, A. E., Sokeng, D. S. P., Callard, P., Flejou,
J. F., and Kamtchouing, P. (2006). Antihyperglycemic and renal protective activities of Anacardium occidentale (Anacardiaceae) leaves in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats. Afr. J. Trad. CAM., 3(1): 23-35.
Veeramuth, D., Muniappan, A., and Savarimuthu, I. (2006). Antimicrobial activity of some
ethnomedicinal plants used by Paliyar tribe from Tamil Nadu, India. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 6: 35.
In-Text Citation: (Ndukwe et al., 2013)
To Cite this Article: Ndukwe, O. K., Awomukwu, D., & Ukpabi, C. F. (2013). Comparative Evaluation of Phytochemical and Mineral Constituents of the Leaves of some Medicinal Plants in Abia State Nigeria. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 2(3), 188–196.
Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode