EXTRACTION, PROXIMATE ANALYSIS, ACUTE TOXICITY

                                                                           ABSTRACT

Alstonia boonei is a medicinal plant grown abundantly in tropical countries and it is used traditionally in the treatment of aliments. This study is aimed at investigating the proximate analysis, acute toxicity and anxiolytic activities of the ethyl acetate extract of A. boonei leaves. All experiments in this study were carried out using standard methods. The leaf extract of A. boonei was successfully prepared by maceration using ethyl acetate as the solvent with a percentage yield of 4.58%. The study shows that the extract contains 10.49% moisture, 4.5% fat, 14.3% fiber, 11.2% ash, 59.51% carbohydrate and the absence of protein. It was found that the plant is a good source of fat, carbohydrate, and fiber. The acute toxicity study shows that there was no dead animal recorded, this shows that the plant extract is not practically toxic. The extract also exhibited anxiolytic properties, a significant anxiety reduction exemplified by a decrease in the frequency of head dip was observed for animals administered 25 mg/kg, 50mg/kg, 100mg/kg dosage of the plant extract compared with untreated samples. The 25mg/kg dose shows the highest anxiolytic property in the mice, proving 25mg/kg to be the best dosage. The ethyl acetate extract of A. boonie is therefore a potential alternative in the development of anxiolytic medications.