Investigation of Chemical, Genotoxic and Haematological Properties of Secondary Metabolites from n-Hexane Extract of Olax subscorpioidea Oliv. (Olacaceae) Leaves

Plants have been used for ethnomedicinal purposes in the treatment of various illnesses since antiquity and they are widely used as alternative to orthodox medicines in modern times. In addition, documentation abounds providing scientific evidences attesting to the fact that extracts from different plants possess useful bioactivities and may be used in the management of different disease conditions. This may explain in part the reason herbal medicines are increasingly used and are recording huge sales around the world. As the use of herbal medicines continues to increase globally, concerns surrounding their safety are also increasingly recognized. In concomitant to their medicinal properties, herbal medicines—like the orthodox drugs—can exhibit toxicity to men. Toxicity is defined as the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can occur on many different time-scales and can be classified as acute, sub-