Phytochemical Studies Of Stem Bark Extracts Of Better Cola (Garcinia Kola)

INTRODUCTION

The role of plant to the human race can be described as indispensable (cannot be set aside or ignore). Apart from the fact that man depends largely on plants for his food. Pants are the main sources of traditional and orthodox medicine. Before the introduction of science into this part of the world, plants and their extracts were the only medicine available for prevention, treatment and cure of most ailments and diseases (Tita et. al., 2001).

However, research scientists had since been attracted to plants due to their diverse application and so they tend to investigate their chemical constitutions as well as study the soil and climatic requirements for the growth of such species.

Recently, diabetes mellitus has become the common disease of the world. Though, advanced technology is being used in modern treatment system, yet we are still far away in the explanation of many aspects and remedy of this disease.

Some oral anti-diabetic agents of modern medicine are not up to the mark due to their harmful side effect. Therefore research for indigenous anti-diabetic herbs is continued as many herbalists and traditional medicine practitioners have claimed that most of these plants are capable of curing and suppressing diabetes. Recently, Garcinia Kola has been acclaimed to be potent for the treatment of diabetes mellitus by some traditional medicine practitioners. Therefore, the essence of this research project is to examine the constituents and compound in n-hexane, chloroform, ethylacete and ethanol stem bark extracts of Garcinia Kola.

1.2     BOTANICAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE PLANT

Garcinia Kola (bitter kola) a name sometimes also used for G. afzeli is a species of flowering plant in the Cusaiaeae or Guttiferae family show below in table 1.

Table 1: Botanical Classification of Garcinia Kola

(Merit Research Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences, December 2016).

1.3     BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PLANT

1. Kola Heckel (family guttiferae) is dicotyledons plant popularly called bitter kola in English is a medium sized tree, which grows up to a light of 12m. It has erect, smooth and cylindrical trunk. It found mostly in moist forest and also cultivated on a farmland. The tree is widely distributed throughout West and Central Africa. The bark is green and thick; the leaves are alternate, slightly revolute, smooth green and oblong acuminate. The flowers are polygamous and the fruits composed of follicles that contain 1- 10 oblong obtuse seeds. Its seeds possess a coffee-like astringent and bitter taste.

The seeds have bitter taste; hence the plant is commonly called bitter kola in Nigeria. As a result of this bitter taste, the seeds have been consumed   as a stimulant (Atawodi et. al, 1995).  The seeds have been used in the treatment of liver disorder and diarrhorea (Iwu, et. al, 1990; Braide, 1991).  It has also been used in the treatment of bronchitis and throat infections (Orie and Ekon, 1993). The plant has been used traditionally as a natural anti-microbial agent (Adefule et. al., 2004).  Garcinia Kola has been reported to possess some hetatoprotective and aphrodisiac properties (Akintowa and Essien, 1990; Ajibola and Satake, 1992) and its proposed effectiveness in the treatment of dermatological disorders associated with melanin pigmentation (Okunji et al., 2007). Other names of the plant include Bitter Kola (English), Efiad (Ibibio), Efiari (Efik), Okele (Igbo).

1.4     MEDICAL USES OF GARCINIA KOLA

Table 2: Medical Uses of Garcinia Kola           

(Iwu et. al., 2003)

1.5     ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF GARCINIA KOLA

1. The seeds are sold commercially and exported.
2. Young branched of the tree are used as chewing stick (Iwu et. al., 2003).
3. The trunk of the tree is employed in furniture works across Africa. They are also made into timbre of different sizes for construction as well building work (Etukudo, 2003).
4. The whole plant when cut down is used as fuel (firewood).

1.6     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 

Plant secondary metabolites (phytoconstituents) have been reported to have bioactive activities (Zhou et. al., 2006). Garcinia kola is used ethrobotanically (the study that focused on the traditional medicinal plants used by local communities or herbal practitioners to treat human diseases). (Tilahun to lo Ssa Jim and Moa Megersa 2015) for treatment of different ailments (Iwu, 1999). There is dearth of information on the phytochemicals present in the stem bark of Garcinia Kola. However this research id focused on the identification of these phytochemicals in Garcinia Kola.

1.7     AIM/OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH

The aim of this study is to extract, separate on thin layer chromatography and identify the active components in the stem bark of Garcinia Kola. To achieve this, the following will be carried out:

1. Successive extraction of the plant material using n-hexane, chloroform, ethylacetate and methanol.
2. Phytochemical screening of the plant using the methanolic extract.
3. Separation of components and identification using thin layer chromatography.
4. Spraying methanolic chromatography with 5% ferric chloride to detect phenol compounds.

Spraying ethylacetate, chloroform and n-hexane chromatographs with anisaldehyde in 10%  to detect components present