ABSTRACT
The application of plants extracts in herbal medicine and as food supplements have attracted great interest in the pharmaceutical and food industry. Terminalia catappa (T. catappa) is a folklore plant whose leaves, roots and stem bark is being used to treat various infectious diseases such as dermatosis, hepatitis, scabies and leprosy. However, herbalist often transform these plants parts via pyrolysis to charcoal and ashes to achieve a broader form of therapy. Charcoal over the years has been known as an anti-poisonous substance with little or no medicinal relevance. This study biologically transformed the stem bark of T. catappa to charcoal, and evaluated the elemental, antibacterial/ antifungal activities of the stem bark. The stem bark were gotten fresh from the tree, dried under sun at about 34-36°C and subjected to pyrolysis. The charcoal gotten was pulverized to smooth powder and subjected to inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP AES) for elemental analysis. Its effect was investigated on normal flora intestinal bacteria (Lactic. Acid bacillus) and some pathogenic organisms (E.coli, Staphylococcus aureus). Results showed that pulverized charcoal contains various trace and macro elements including Calcium (Ca), Iron (Fe), Potassium (K), Magnesium (Mg), Sodium (Na), Zinc (Zn) and Manganese (Mn) (17124, 1928, 29994, 4670, 3944, 213, 171, mg/kg) as the most predominant element. There are 11 known essential elements (iron, copper, zinc, chromium, molybdenum, iodine, selenium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, and fluorine) vitally important for human health. These essential elements deficiency results in many pathological processes, including such world-wide human diseases, as iron-deficient anemias and other forms of endemic hypothyroid goiter, endemic fluorine deficiency states, hyposiderosis, particularly manifested by dental caries in children and osteoporosis of the advanced age. Pulverized charcoal showed a non-inhibitory effect on the growth bands of normal flora intestinal bacteria suggesting a probiotic potential, whereas bands of E.coli and staphylococcus showed an adsorbent potential suggesting that charcoal adsorbs microorganisms by binding and immobilizing them which subsequently kills them. These elements and activity exhibited by charcoal may be responsible for the various reported therapeutic activity, however more studies should be focused on charcoal therapy as a food supplement or addictives against anemia and a potential drug target against organ toxemia. Essential trace element deficiency in many forms results to embryonal and fetal pathology and also decreases the antitumour resistance in man. xi New trace elements are still being identified and their number reached is about 19 at present. The development of pathological anatomy of essential trace element deficiency is an essential task of modern medicine.
