ABSTRACT
From time immemorial man has been interested in trying to control diseases. Many important drugs used in medicine today are directly or indirectly derived from plants and plant products. Medicinal plants have been explored for the treatment of numerous health problems from the era of complete absence of scientific medical knowledge to present day medicine.
The aim of this study was to determine the phytochemical constituents and mineral nutrients present in the stem bark of Pentaclethra macrophylla and to investigate the acute toxicity of its stem bark.
The powdered stem bark (2.9kg) were extracted with methanol (7.5L) by maceration at room temperature for 7 days. Phytochemical screening was done according to standard methods. The mineral nutrients was investigated determined according to Association of Official Analytical Chemists with some modifications by atomic absorption spectrophotoscopy,while acute toxicity screening was evaluated using the Lorke’s method.
The phytochemical investigation of the stem bark extract of Pentaclethra macrophylla revealed the presence of saponins, alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, phytosterols and phenolics. The mineral nutrient investigation showed that the stem bark extract of Pentaclethra macrophylla contains Potassium, Calcium, Sodium, Copper, Zinc, Iron, Lead, Nickel, Cadmium, Magnesium. Acute toxicity screening showed that the extract was toxic at high doses with LD50 of 3,800 mg/kg. The present study has shown that the methanol extracts of the stem bark of Pentaclethra macrophylla has little or no acute toxic property and contains mineral nutrients.
