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ABSTRACT
Pentaclethra macrophylla also known as African oil bean seed is eaten as a vegetable and has medicinal and health benefits such as in the treatment of convulsion, diarrhea, dermatogical infections, and reduction in cancerous growth. There have been some scientific reports of the many uses of P. macrophylla in both modern and ethnomedicine. However, the paucity of information in the immunomodulatory effects of the plant have necessitated the need for this study, which was carried out to determine the phytochemcial constituents and immunomodalatory effect of n-hexane extract of P. macrophylla on immunized Wister albino rats. P. macrophylla seeds (Ugba) were obtained from Enugwu-ukwu, in the Eastern part of Nigeria. The seeds sample were identified and authenticated in the Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, University of Benin. The phytochemical constituents and proximate analysis of the seeds of P. macrophylla were determined using standard methods. Four treatments (control and 3 experimental groups of albino rat were immunize with different volumes of extract: 0.1ml (Group 2), 0.2ml (Group 3) and 0.4ml (Group 4). The phytochemical constituents of P. macrophylla revealed the presence of alkaloids (3µg/ml), flavonoids (201.11µg/ml), tannins (32.32µg/ml) others included proanthrocyamidin and saponins (concentration not determined). The proximate analysis showed the presence of lipids (22.8%), crude protein (34.3%), and carbohydrate (10.8%). There was a significant increase (p<0.05) in the concentration of white blood cells (WBCs) in treatment group 3 (0.2ml of extract used to immunized the Wistar rat) with a value of 11.25+ 2.49 compared to control group and group 2 (Wistar rats immunized with 0.1 ml of extract) with values of 6.13 + 0.64, and 5.4 + 2.95 respectively. The percentage of lymphocyte in all the groups were not statistically significant (p>0.05). Treatment group 3 (0.2 ml of extracts used to immunized the Wistar rats) had 3.30+1.3% while the control group (group 1) had 2.20 + 69.7%, group 2 (2.70+1.44%) and group 4 (2.6+0.5%). The histopathological analysis revealed that liver, kidney and spleen of the control group shared no observable effects while animals in the treatment groups showed that the liver had visible centrioles and dilated sinusoids with vacuolated nucleus. The results of the study suggest that P. macrophylla can be a good immunomodulator in animals and perhaps in humans and therefore should be further recommended as one of the plants that is used as an immune booster.
